


Heartlines

by nekojita



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Blood Magic, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Necromancy, based on some stuff but with my own twists, some characters are a bit dark, there's a good bit of minor character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-10-05 21:43:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 291,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10317590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekojita/pseuds/nekojita
Summary: The Fae king and queens have gone away, closing the knowes behind them and abandoning their offspring to the mortal world. As the Fae have spread far and wide, their bloodlines thinning if not vanishing forever as they flee from mortal persecution... two Fae have found a way to reopen the knowes - Kayleigh Day and Tetsuji Moriyama. The Fae regroup once more, the balance of power shifted amongst them, and 'changelings' appear now and then in the mortal population.Andrew Doe is one of those changelings, a young child suffering in the foster system, shunned by his peers for some reason and hearing voices in his head.Alex - the latest name gifted to him by a charm - is on the run along with his mother from his father, using their talents as shadow walkers to slide between worlds and stay one step ahead of the powerful Fae. Except even that is not enough anymore. Except that's not Alex's only talent.*******An urban fantasy where I throw Fae, necromancy and magic at TFC characters, pretty much!





	1. Destroyer

**Author's Note:**

> OK, so I finally did the thing. The thing with Necromancer!Andrew. Wow, I think I started this way back... uhm, last year? End of last year? I know I posted a part or two of this on my tumblr, but here's the finished first chapter.
> 
> Some of the inspiration of this draws from Seanan McGuire's October Daye's Fae series, at least the set up with the knowes (I'm doing the grouping of a lot of 'mythological' beings such as kitsune and tengu and naga as Fae, too, but not drawing any actual characters from her series and changing the things with the Fae, too. That's it. To be fair, I don't think SM is the only one to come up with knowes, but I also don't want people to be all 'but you didn't come up with them' either).
> 
> Also, don't expect this to be a regular Wednesday posting schedule. I had this about halfway done before I managed to complete this chapter for this week, and I want to stick with The First Breath on Sundays until it's completed (it's at least halfway done), but I felt the urge to get this chapter done so you'll probably see more of this now.
> 
> Triggers? This chapter has some very vague references to bad experiences, but NOTHING EXPLICIT and nothing that goes past a certain point (seriously, it's like five to ten words in the whole thing of non-con) and of course there's some violence (again, nothing explicit). That said... hmm, I'm debating things for the next chapter. Something happens to one of the main characters, it would go along with what we know does take place in a certain environment, and if I do go through with it, it won't be explicit at all.
> 
> As you can tell by the chapter title, things are a little dark.
> 
> Feel free to question me on Tumblr (nekojitachan) if you want more information on anything.  
> *******

 

 *******

Oberon had gone away many a year ago, along with Titania and Maeb, his two polar consorts and much of their Courts, some of the most powerful of the Seelie and Unseelie. There were those who cast blame on one queen or the other, who claimed that the powerful Fae king had grown bored and so had gone off to find a new realm to conquer, that he had seen the time of humans gaining ascendance growing near and refused to bow his head to such pathetic yet numerous mortals.

All that mattered was that the Fae king and his queens were gone, that the knowes slowly disappeared as well and those bearing magic in their blood were trapped in the mortal world. Were shut out of their sanctuaries, their small private realms passed down through bloodlines and bindings and battle, and abandoned in a cruel world where they were hunted because of their magical nature. So they scattered, they hid, they cast glamour and spun webs of lies to protect themselves, and mourned what had been while their numbers dwindled and their bloodlines thinned. While the human population grew and magic seemed to fade from a world made more monstrous and mundane with each passing year.

Until Kayleigh Day of the Tuatha de Danann and Tetsuji Moriyama of the Moriyama tengu clan did what no one else had done in centuries and opened a sealed knowe in the early Nineteenth century, and then repeated the feat. They shared the knowledge regained, with the Moriyama clan and their allies claiming some of the largest abandoned knowes in Asia and the United States, while Day was content roaming around for several decades before eventually settling down in Ireland. With the return of their secure homes, those with magical blood drew together once more, sought out knowes based on old bloodlines or vows or hopes of security. Alliances grew, power structures formed and shifted about, new ‘courts’ were created, a shadow world hidden from the mortal one.

Magic was back, for the most part a small side-step from the everyday reality. For the most part. The blood had been spread too far, too thin, for every drop to be accounted for, and magic was unpredictable by its very nature.

*******

Alex panted as he dodged the iron blade of the knife in Lola’s hand, exhausted and terrified and desperate to see what was happening with his mother. There were too much going on around them, too many of his father’s people, and at least one of them must be casting a spell to keep the humans from seeing things, from interrupting the fight despite the fact that Alex could hear music and laughter not too far away.

The blade slashed close enough to his chest that he could _feel_ the burn of iron, close enough to almost slice through the strap of the bag containing everything he owned, and he just managed to block it with his own silver knife.

“Not bad, Junior,” Lola cooed, her eyes glowing as red as her curved lips. “You’ve learned a little over the years.”

He didn’t bother to waste the energy on speaking, not when he was gathering everything inside of him so he could slip into the shadows, so he and his mother could run. They needed to get back on the Dark Road – he didn’t care what his mother said, _anything_ was safer than here, than the mortal world where his father could find them.

Someone tried to cast a spell on him, something that reeked of wet ash and tasted of bitter lemon peels, so most likely a jinx of some kind. Alex bore several charms that his mother had made for him, a couple even carved into his long-scarred skin, and one of them warded off the spell. Still, it cost him a precious second and a burning line of pain along his left side, and Lola’s smile widened as his blood wet the iron blade.

Alex stumbled away, torn over what he should do, if he should slip away then or not, and heard his mother cry out. It wasn’t in rage or panic, which wouldn’t have been unusual, but it was in pain, was a sharp, broken sound, was so horrible that he reacted without thinking and put that carefully hoarded bit of strength to use and melted into the shadows.

Relief washed through him when he stepped onto the Dark Road, the ground springy beneath his feet and the air still. It was always so quiet there, the sounds as muted as the colors of the overcast sky, the trees, the – well, _everything_. The road wasn’t the only dark thing in the in-between world, but it was a black ribbon winding ever forward and back.

He allowed himself a moment to take a few deep breaths, to press his hand to his bleeding side, since time moved oddly in the Dark Road (if at all), and then that bit of energy gave out and he was back in that seaport town, back in the human world and faced with his _father_. He hadn’t seen the man in years, and Nathan was still a demon in the flesh, his magic the copper tang of fresh blood and the bite of heated metal, so overwhelming that Alex wanted to curl up and hide.

But he couldn’t, not with his mother huddled in front of the monster, her face haggard and smeared with blood. There were people shouting, Lola’s voice loud and shrill, and as Nathan reached out to Alex’s mother, Alex grabbed onto the person closest to him, to a half-Selkie he remembered who had taken delight in ‘teaching’ him to swim, pressed his knife to bare flesh and used the magic he kept buried deep down to rip away what he needed. What he and his mother needed.

The man was dead before he slumped forward, the energy of his death and magic a potent, jangling knot inside of Alex’s chest that made him want to throw up, to scream, yet he forced the emotions aside as he lunged for his mother. He could feel the spells being readied for them, could feel the weight of his father’s regard, of those cold blue eyes, but all that mattered was touching his mother just then. Was making what he’d done worthwhile and dragging them both back onto the Dark Road.

It felt as if he was being torn in two, diving into the shadows with his mother, and all that precious, horrible energy bled out of him as they tumbled onto the Dark Road. Despite the pain and the shock, he held tight to his mother’s torn dress rather than lose her, and it was when they sprawled out on the black path that he saw the knife sticking out of stomach. Saw the blood staining her worn brown dress and the cord-wrapped silver hilt, and knew what it meant.

“No, no, _no_!” His left hand hovered over the iron blade, uncertain if it would be worse to pull it out or leave it in. It wasn’t a normal blade – she couldn’t heal from it.

“Take it out,” his mother said, her voice low and forced through clenched teeth. “You can’t do anything, just take it out.

“But-“

Her bloody right hand raised enough to smack into his left arm, the strike weak but effective in getting him to listen. “Do it. The damage’s done, it’ll just slow us down, now.” When Alex closed his eyes upon hearing that, his arm was given another feeble smack. “Do it, _Abram_.”

Mention of his true name from the person who had given him it, the only person who knew it, made Alex open his eyes and nod. Even with the wrapped hilt, his fingers ached to touch the awful thing; he couldn’t imagine the agony his mother must be in, to have had that buried in her for so long.

Once the blade was removed, the blood gushed forth and no bandage could stop it, no healing would work. “Come on,” she said. “I can’t die here. We have to get as far away as we can.”

Alex nodded, even though he didn’t completely understand; for as long as his talent as a shadow walker had been revealed, his mother had beaten (sometimes literally) things into his head about the Dark Road. Never stay on it too long. Never leave the road. Never eat or drink anything found there. Never trust the shadow wolves. It was her insistence to leave the Dark Road that allowed his father’s people to find them again and again.

However, the last thing Alex was going to do was argue with her just then. Not when her blood fell in large drops onto the Dark Road, only to vanish within seconds. Not when that awful talent of his refused to lie dormant when it felt a looming death so close by. All he could do was offer a shoulder to his mother, weighed down by her and his bag.

It didn’t seem like they got very far before she coughed up blood and collapsed, but much like time, distance also wasn’t the same in the Dark Road; when he let them slip back into the mortal world, it was still night but they appeared far away from any city even if they were still next to the sea. Judging from the stars, they hadn’t left the Northwest coast of the United States, yet now they were a good bit south from where they’d been earlier.

Alex’s mother crumpled onto the wet sand with her eyes closed, her expression one of extreme misery and pain. “You know what to do, Abram.” She reached up to touch her chest, to touch where the strap of her own bag should be; it must have been lost or snatched away during the fight, and of course Alex’s father would take advantage of the contents to track them down.

“But – I can’t,” he pleaded as he stared at his hands, already stained with her blood.

She opened her eyes, all glamour stripped away so he could see their natural pale grey color. “You have to do it. I didn’t raise you to be weak, boy. You can’t go on like this, so _do it, Abram_.” When he flinched at the command in those words, the geas, the thin line of her lips softened a little. “Better it’s you than him, or one of his hounds. Do it.”

He allowed himself a moment to stare at her, to take in the resolve on her gaunt face, the strength to it despite its thinness, the lines of pain, then nodded as he allowed the hated magic inside of him free rein. All it took was the lightest of touch and then she was nothing more than a small heap of bloody and worn clothes, of tangled blonde hair and delicate bones.

Despite the thrum of magic inside of him, Alex felt hollowed out. There were the stars above him and the rush of the ocean beside him, and he felt as if he was untethered from it all. It was just him and his bag of charms and an empty shell of the one person who had known his true name.

He’d never known hers.

The rush of water toward his mother’s body reminded him that he had work to do and not much time; his father had several teleporters in his employ, and at least one of them would find the beach soon. Alex reached into his bag for two charms that were tucked in the bottom, wrapped in enchanted silk to keep them safe.

The first he set on his mother, and once activated he watched on as it flared bright then rendered her body to fine ash that the next wave came to wash into the ocean, the air scented with acrid smoke that lingered longer than her remains. It was too late to stop anyone tracking them to the beach, but no one would be able to use his mother’s body for spells, to use her against him from that point on.

The second charm was the last he had from the initial batch his mother had bought when they had run from his father several years ago; they were a specialized magic, very rare and very expensive. They also required a high price to cast, a price that Alex’s mother had always collected, and now he sat on a piece of driftwood while he waited for what he needed.

It was almost dawn when the Unseelie showed up via a portal, a woman he didn’t know. The Gwyllion appeared in her early twenties, but that didn’t mean anything to their kind. All Alex cared about was the silk bag festooned with various charms hanging from the leather belt around her waist, a bag that most likely contained iron cuffs so she could keep him from disappearing into the shadows.

“Nathaniel, it’ll be easier for you if you give up,” she said as she held up an iron knife in her right hand. However, he recognized it for the feint it was – that she held a light charm in her left, and he only had a moment before she cast it to take away the shadows.

If he hadn’t gotten more energy from his mother, he’d be slow enough for it to work. As it was, he tumbled onto the Dark Road right as she cast it, and when he stepped off of it, the spell was done and he appeared behind her.

The name charm hung around his neck, its speckled black stone cold against his chest, he slashed the silver knife held in his right hand along the woman’s nape and allowed his magic to flow through it. All the spell needed was blood, and Alex shuddered as its magic churned through him, as… as….

No, he was _Neil_ , now. Anyone searching for Alex would find the trail ending here, at this beach.

It took a bit of effort, but he hauled the corpse out into the ocean, where the current would drag it out into deeper water. He didn’t care so much about getting rid of the body, just about washing away anything that might be used against him. If by chance a Selkie, Kelpie or something else found the body, there wouldn’t be any trace left of Neil on it.

After a quick check of the beach that he wasn’t leaving anything behind which could be used against him, Neil slipped away to the Dark Road. As soon as his feet touched upon the black, oddly soft ground, he fell down, fingers digging into the loamy soil as pain and loss tore through him, as he stared to his right where his mother had always stood, where she had always been so she could grab onto him when they slipped through the shadows together or prepared to fight or to pull him close to defend him or – she had always _been_.

Now she was gone, save for that small bit of magic inside of him, her voice in his head, the few items in his bag.

Neil allowed himself what felt to be a few moments to grieve, a small amount of time he knew she would berate him for, and then stumbled to his feet. There weren’t many people who could access the Dark Road, but they were still out there and he needed to move along.

His options… his options were almost good. He was Neil now, and as long as he was careful, as long as he was clever, it would take a while before his father could track him down.

There were the knowes, but few would allow Neil inside as an unknown cloaked in glamour. Besides, his memories of knowes were based on his experiences of his father’s, Baiting’s End, and Tetsuji Moriyama’s, Evermore. No, knowes were as bad as the human world.

Despite everything his mother had told him, the Dark Road was his only option. Every time they had strayed from this road, that they had ventured back to the mortal world, they had been found. Neil took a few faltering steps down the road, a black path cleared through greyish grass and framed by dark, twisted trees with rustling pale grey leaves, and slowly regained his balance. He had his knife and his magic, he would see how long he could survive in the world that was his mother’s legacy to him as he began to run.

*******

“Doe, go clean up,” Mr. Matterson told Andrew, even though he wasn’t dirty or messy at all; he’d been reading on his bed ever since breakfast. Still, Andrew set the book aside (something ridiculous about a talking pig, but better than some of the other ones in the small library) then went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his hands. The voices followed him, a faint shushing sound in his head, but he’d learned by then to not react, to not show anything. Living in a foster home for his entire life had taught him a lot of things, including what happened to the children whom everything believed were crazy.

He also knew that this interview was going to be a waste of time, even if the latest couple did decide to take him. If so, it wouldn’t be for long. It never was for long.

They seemed all right, were a little younger than the last ones (the ones with the husband who had liked to _touch_ Andrew, at least until something had pushed him down the stairs when he had been on his way to Andrew’s bedroom the one night). They weren’t put off by Andrew’s ‘cold’ demeanor like so many were, by whatever it was that kept the other children away from him, which made the staff of Angels Foster Care (‘ _angels_ ’, right), avoid touching Andrew as much as possible. They seemed to think his lack of emotions was him just being shy, not him having stopped caring about people who would just see him as some sort of monster or freak soon enough.

The man was broad-shouldered but not too tall, the woman made up and petite and seemed taken with how small Andrew was, and Andrew went to back to reading after a while. At dinner (sandwiches and soup), he was told they would return in a couple of days for him. Judging from Mrs. Roman’s demeanor, she didn’t expect it to last long, either, much like Andrew’s other foster parents.

The Dormans’ had a nice home, in a community full of similar houses. Andrew was giving a small room with a new twin bed and clean sheets, the walls painted a sunny yellow, and a few new clothes. Mrs. Dorman enjoyed cooking and Mr. Dorman liked to watch sports, which he tried to get Andrew interested in. The kids at school hated Andrew on sight and ignored him.

There were the hushed voices at the new house, too. Not many, but a couple. Andrew swore he could understand them if he just tried a little harder.

It went as well as it could for about a month, when Andrew felt so cut off from the Dormans, when he felt that there was something lacking in them, when there was something so different between himself and the couple. Then the next-door neighbors’ kid (Todd, who refused to talk to Andrew, let alone play with him) let his dog off its leash and it got run over. They buried it in the back yard.

That night, it somehow ended up on the Dormans’ back porch.

Fingers were pointed at Andrew by Todd and his family, and Mr. Dorman promised to ‘talk’ to Andrew. Andrew said he didn’t do it and went to bed without any dinner. It happened again that night, and Andrew was spanked as well as deprived of his dinner. Mrs. Dorman was left upset, Mr. Dorman angry, and he locked Andrew’s bedroom door.

That night, the dog ended up on the Dormans’ bed.

Andrew was back at Angels Foster home the next day. He was nine years old, and things like that had happened to him for all of his life. Mrs. Roman had taken him to a church once, had stared at him the entire time during the Catholic service, and seemed confused when all Andrew had done was complain to her that it was ‘boring’.

There were a few more attempts at foster homes, but none of them worked out, either. Mr. Edwards ended up in the hospital when he attempted to beat Andrew. Mr. Smith might never walk again (another ‘tragic’ fall down the stairs – he had been a _toucher_ , too). By the time Andrew was eleven, he could understand the voices, could comprehend what they were saying to him. A lot of times it was nonsense and so he ignored it, especially since it was mostly children at Angels, but sometimes it was adults and they had interesting things to talk about at night, when he was alone. For some reason, they all looked after him.

He needed it, when dealing with his foster families.

He thought he caught glimpses of others like him from time to time, when on field trips for school or when out running errands. People who seemed to gleam or radiate the oddest of scents, who drew his attention. But he was rarely allowed outside of Angels or school or his foster homes and so never got to know for certain. The voices thought he might be right, but didn’t know, either.

When he was thirteen, a new family came to Angels – the Spears. Richard Spear was another ‘average’ man, which meant Andrew was wary of him in an instant. Yet there was something different about his wife, Cass Spear. She had a hint of that glow about her, and her smile put Andrew at ease.

He was living at their house within two days, was standing outside in the huge garden that Cass had planted in the back yard, full of flowers and herbs and vegetables. “I’ve always had a way with plants,” Cass said with a laugh. “Seems to be a thing with the women in my family.”

She was as cheerful as her smile and strove to make Andrew feel at home, to make him feel accepted. The voices had nothing but good things to say about her and Richard, and Andrew felt himself relax despite himself, to believe that he might have finally found a home.

And the about three weeks later Drake arrived, Cass’s adult son. He had Richard’s brown eyes but Cass’s brown hair cut short, tall body made muscular from the work he’d done the last few months. Cass cried out in joy to see him, and Richard welcomed him with a hug.

Drake had been working on a construction site in San Jose, but came back because he was debating to join the Marines before he ended up drafted, he told his parents over dinner. Richard appeared proud of the decision, Cass torn between worry and admiration. While he talked, Drake kept glancing over at Andrew, who picked at his meal and didn’t speak, and smiled a bit too much.

The voices didn’t like Drake. Especially the voice which had arrived with Drake.

It took three days before Drake came to Andrew, three days while Drake seemed to debate on what to do, where he watched over Andrew while Andrew read or sat out in Cass’s garden, while he asked Andrew a lot of questions about himself. Andrew didn’t get much sleep those nights, even with the voices promising to watch over him.

It was late and Richard and Cass were asleep when the door to Andrew’s bedroom opened and Drake stepped in with a grin on his face. “Hey, AJ, you awake?” he asked, voice pitched low. Andrew didn’t say anything, just stared at the man, at the rough tattoos on display since Drake wore jeans and a tank-top, and noticed that Drake held something in his left hand. Something that looked like heavy handcuffs. Something that made Andrew very afraid for some reason.

“Oh yeah, you are,” Drake said as his grin widened. “I thought we’d play a little. Brought something special just for that.” He held up the handcuffs. “Something that’ll make it fun. I think you’re one of a kind, AJ, and we’re going to have so much fun _playing_.”

The voice which had come with Drake screamed inside of Andrew’s head to not let those handcuffs touch him, to not let _Drake_ touch him. Andrew gasped as images and emotions poured into him, at the feel of Drake’s hands touching him even though the man was still at the foot of the bed, at the knowledge of what those handcuffs would do to him, of what _Drake_ would do to him, and something… something _snapped_ inside of him. Something shifted and burst free, a rush of something that filled the room with the scent of fresh-turned earth and ivy, and then the voices howled in delight as Drake was stopped by something, as he stared in horror at Andrew before he was spun around by invisible hands, as the cuffs fell to the floor right before there was an awful snapping sound and then Drake collapsed.

He was dead, somehow Andrew knew that without even having to get up off of the bed. Drake was dead and Andrew had done it, had made the voices (not voices, they were more than that, but he didn’t want to think about it right then) do it. Andrew fought to breathe, to think, his fingers buried in his hair while the voices continued to murmur, to talk.

The body couldn’t remain there, that would be trouble for Andrew.

The bastard deserved to be chopped up and fed to dogs.

Yes, but Andrew, think of Andrew.

A car? He had a car, right? Andrew, make him move, get him into the car.

The voices continued until Andrew fought down the panic and understood what some of them were suggesting, until he grasped the plan. At first he wasn’t sure he could do it, but all it took was reaching for that new energy, that new force inside of him, and then Drake’s body stumbled back onto its feet. For a horrible moment Andrew thought the man was alive, but those ugly brown eyes were unseeing, that face slack and heart unbeating.

Andrew skirted the handcuffs when he got out of bed and walked behind Drake’s corpse to help it get downstairs, to fetch the keys to the Mustang convertible parked outside and to start the car. Then he went back upstairs to his room and watched from his window as ‘Drake’ drove the car out of the driveway and down the road, speeding up as he headed for the curve at the end of the block but instead plowed right into the huge oak tree on the corner instead.

It only took a minute or two for people to wake up from the noise, to go outside and see what had happened. Soon enough, Cass and Richard would be among them when people realized that it was Drake Spear’s car, when the crowd grew loud enough. Andrew left his window to go look at the handcuffs, and hissed when touching them with his right forefinger made his skin burn. He grabbed his jacket to wrap them in and hid them away.

A neighbor came for Richard and Cass about ten minutes later.

Andrew was back at Angels Foster Care within a week, Cass too destroyed by loss to properly care for him anymore, according to Richard. She had broken down at the sight of her son’s dead, mangled body in the car and never recovered. Andrew wished that Drake’s death hadn’t been so quick, especially after the one voice told him more about the man.

He studied the handcuffs from time to time, careful not to touch them. How did Drake know about them? Why did iron affect Andrew? Did others know about Andrew? What _was_ Andrew?

So when the letter came a couple of years after that fateful return to Angels, written by his supposed twin brother who wanted to meet him, Andrew stared at it for most of a day before he wrote back ‘yes’. He was never going to get the answers he needed while stuck in Angels or any of his rotating, abbreviated stints in foster homes, so time to see if this Aaron and Tilda Minyard had them. He would deal with them only for that much, considering that apparently his ‘dear’ mother had abandoned him yet kept his brother.

More than likely she would abandon him again, soon enough. Just like everyone else did within a couple of weeks if not days of taking him in. Only the dead embraced him, and only the dead did he have any use for – except for answers. That was all these Minyards were to him, answers to questions, and then he would be gone from their lives, too.

*******

Neil stared up at the twisted branches of the tree in front of him, at the pale, almost apple-like fruit which hung from the branches with the jagged-edged leaves which rustled about despite the fact that there was no wind in the Dark Road. Well, in the land of the Dark Road - Neil had strayed from the black path... he had no idea 'when' exactly, since there was no day or night in the grey land, no way to pass the time. In his bag was a silver watch that his mother had given him which had been a gift from her brother, but no matter how much he wound the thing, it never worked. At least not here.

There had been a couple of rolls, a bruised apple and an orange in his bag when he’d crossed through the shadows. All of the food was now gone and his stomach felt empty, despite drinking enough water to fill it several times. He'd already disobeyed his mother in leaving the path, in drinking the water he found, so all that was left was to grab the fruit and eat something solid. He only hesitated a little longer before sliding his bag further down his back and then climbing up the tree.

The leaves were sharp, but he was small and could avoid most of them to get at the lower hanging fruit; he picked enough to fill the bag and then climbed back down. Despite its apple-like appearance, the fruit's scent reminded him of lemons, and after he rubbed one of them against the front of his cotton shirt, he steeled himself to bite into it - he wouldn't last long if he starved, and dying from poison couldn't be any worse than what would happen if his father caught up to him.

It tasted a bit like lemons, like something sour and tart but not quite, and nothing bad happened after he waited what seemed to be a decent amount of time. Neil decided he liked it, that it was a burst of something bright in the grey world, and forced himself to stop once he ate three after reminding himself that he'd seen the trees all over in his journeys through the Dark Road. Hunger mostly assuaged for the time being, he adjusted the bag and picked up his shoes, which were tied together by their laces, slung them over his shoulder and then resumed running.

He'd always enjoyed running, had savored the time on the Dark Road when he and his mother could strike out and put some distance between themselves and their pursuers. Too often running in the human world meant that they were fleeing in desperation, and there wasn't that much open space in the knowes.

Even while on the Dark Road, Neil hadn't been able to run that much with his mother, as she hadn't wanted to stay too long on it, hadn't wanted to remain in the grey world any longer than necessary. Neil didn't understand that, since here he didn't need to wear a constant glamour, to worry about iron or humans, he just needed to worry about his father sending another shadow walker or teleporter to track him down.

There were just the shadow wolves.

They showed up when he was on his second batch of fruit (a bit more sour than the first one, but still edible), dark, slinky shadows in the distance. At first he thought he might be imagining things, but they always stayed just so far off in the distance, enough to remain in sight (to keep _him_ in sight), but never going away. He remembered the terrible stories that Lola and Romero had told him (well aware of his mother's abilities, well aware that he probably had inherited them) about the creatures, about how they had snared many an unaware or foolish shadow walker. Neil kept watch over them, but in the end the presence of the creatures from his old nightmares didn't scare him as much as his father - though he wished that he'd kept the iron knife.

He didn't know how long they continued to tail him, not in a world where time held no meaning. He ran until he grew tired, then slept until he felt refreshed. He drank when he was thirsty, refilled the small canteen in his bag whenever he found one of the small, crystal clear streams or ponds of cold water - sometimes there would be tiny silver fish he would catch by using one of his spare shirts as an improvised net, which made a nice break from the fruit. They were almost nutty in flavor, but he was adapting to how things were different from what they seemed in the Dark Road. Those little changes helped break up the 'monotony' of his existence, of running and eating and sleeping, of foraging and drinking and watching out for the shadow wolves and any other danger.

He continued on, staying away from the dark path, from the places where he knew it corresponded with knowes, with human cities - all points where others of Fae blood would easily slide onto the Dark Road from shadows or portals. The longer he could avoid anyone, the better.

There was no way to tell the passage of time on the Dark Road, but his clothes grew ragged from wear, from washing them across the sandy bottoms of the ponds and being snagged against the sharp leaves. Neil had money in the bottom of the bag, had some jewelry he had swiped from unsuspecting mortal wrists and fingers, but he was loathe to return to that world to buy anything, especially when he came across the caches of supplies in the hollows of tree roots, in some stone cairns around the ponds.

There were stories about the Dark Road - there were _always_ stories. Neil's mother had muttered to him that the Fae seemed made of half word, half magic and pure lies, were unable to continue unless there was a ridiculous tale being told _somewhere_ about them, either by their own kind or humans. That they loved talking almost as they loved magic and spilling blood, loved fighting and cursing each other. So _of course_ there were stories about the Dark Road, that it was the last place Oberon, Maeb and Titania had been seen before they left forever, that there were untold riches to be found there - and untold dangers. That Maeb had used it as a prison for those who had displeased her the most. That Oberon had used it as a test to determine his brightest and strongest subjects.

Neil didn't care about any of those things, just that he found ‘new’ clothes to wear to replace the old rags, found sharp blades to replace the ones that had grown dull, found pieces of silver and gold embedded with jewels which could come in handy should he ever need to return to the human world and buy supplies, need to seek out his own kind and pay for new charms. Some of the items were even imbued with spells, and those he was mindful of, those he treated with care. His mother would have had an idea of what they were, of what they could do, but she'd only taught him the basics because of everything; how to ward, to defend himself, to cast glamours and reverse or craft curses and jinxes, things like that. He was good at what he knew, but there was much that her education hadn't covered. He kept an engraved silver bracelet that called out to him and mentally marked down the location of everything else before he moved on.

Moved on with the shadow wolves still trailing him, never out of sight, never close enough to feel like a proper threat.

He had stopped for the 'night', having settled into some sort of rhythm by then, of running so long before resting for a while, and had decided to cut his hair since it was falling so far down onto his face that it was difficult to see unless he used a strip of cloth to keep it pulled back all of the time. Risking a small fire of gathered branches to burn the auburn strands once he cut them with the silver blade, he hacked away until his head felt a bit lighter and he could see without any trouble. The remaining hair felt uneven and curly beneath his fingers, and there was something odd about his ears, but Neil gave up playing with the strands after a few seconds; all that mattered was that he could see, not how it looked.

Getting up to stamp out the fire, he noticed that the shadow wolves were gone, that he didn't see their dark shapes slinking around, didn't hear their low, coughing barks and faint whines. Instantly on alert, he pulled out the silver knife strapped to his left hip just as the charm carved onto his left shoulder flared with pain.

Someone had tried to cast some sort of curse on him, a sleeping or knock-out spell or something similar. Neil gritted his teeth through the pain as he spun around, and barely got the knife up in time to block the attack from the Unseelie trying to blind him. The man frowned, probably over the fact that Neil was still standing… and the way his gaze shifted behind Neil warned him to throw himself to the right, just before the other Trow behind him could touch him with what looked to be some sort of charm.

It was rare to find two shadow walkers, but they appeared to be related; they both had bright silver hair and pale yellow eyes, though the one with the knife had a stockier build and round face. Perhaps only one of them was a shadow walker and another was close enough by blood that they could form a magical bond which allowed one to pull the other into the Dark Road and keep them there without constant physical connection – as long as they remained close enough to each other.

Neil could test it out by separating the two, but somehow he suspected that he wouldn’t be given the opportunity, not with both of them so determined to take him down. He could feel the one with the charm ready another spell, the same curse from before judging from the stench of burnt lavender and vetiver, but he couldn’t do anything but brace himself for it when the other Unseelie came at him again.

He just avoided a slash to his chest, and shuddered at the strength of the curse while his right wrist ached for some reason.

“Dammit, go _down_ , you bastard,” the one with the knife spat. “Why don’t you go down?”

Neil didn’t know – the charm was a last line of defense, had been a desperate attempt by his mother to protect them from being rendered unconscious while they fought or had to lower their defenses enough to regain their strength. It should block enough of a curse to keep them from being completely knocked out, but that was it – charms carved into skin and bone or tattooed onto a body were never as effective as the ‘real’ thing, even if they were more permanent and less likely to be snatched away. The one Neil bore? It never should have withstood two powerful curses in a row, not without him reinforcing it with fresh blood.

So he couldn’t count on it a third time – he might have ignored his mother about the Dark Road, but there were some things one didn’t chance, and magic was definitely at the top of the list. Neil gritted his teeth together as he reached for the detested ability inside of him, as he set it free while he lashed out with his knife; it would take too long to cast a spell, and while he dealt with one of them, the other could take him down. He was too used to fighting in tandem with his mother, and now only had his father’s ‘gift’ to save him.

As soon as the blade cut through the knife fighter’s upper right arm, energy sizzled into Neil, another flare setting off on his body, that time his right wrist, and then the Unseelie fell to the ground. The other Trow called out a name, but all that Neil cared about was that it meant that his remaining attacker was a shadow walker and still after him, and he had more than enough magic to cast a curse of his own.

He lunged from the body, and the sudden reappearance of the shadow wolves aided him in that they stunned the other Unseelie; used to them as he was, Neil barely spared them a thought as they raced forward for the fallen body. Holding up the bloody blade as a shield and a focus, he called upon the shared blood bond between the two Unseelie and unleashed the most potent curse his mother had taught him.

The still air of the Dark Road was filled with the odor of rust and something foul, something rotten, right before the other Unseelie cried out again, that time in pain as he fell to his knees, blood streaming down his face from his eyes and nose. Beneath the stench of the curse was the scent of Neil’s magic, of primroses and fallow leaves, and as Neil steadied himself to end the man’s suffering, as he called his magic to him once again, several shadow wolves swirled around the kneeling man and ravaged him with gleaming fangs.

He stood there while the pack all but decimated the two Unseelie, as their coughing barks gave way to croons of delight and growls of pleasure, swaying back and forth with the bloodied knife in his hand. A voice in his head – his mother’s – told him to run, to flee the Dark Road, but there might be more of his father’s people waiting for him there, waiting for the slaughtered men to bring him out of the shadows. Yet if he ran for the Road, wouldn’t the wolves give chase?

So he stood there until they were done, until the Unseelie were little more than cracked bones and shredded rags and scraps, and then a couple of the wolves split apart from the two groups to slink their way toward him. They weren’t like their ‘brethren’ in the human world, they were long and thin and had such tall, spindly legs which they walked on with an amazing amount of grace, large ears and a long, narrow face, and a slender, long tail that seemed to bleed off into the grey sky. They were beautiful and graceful and terrifying, and circled Neil several times as he stared at them frozen, before one came over to nudge at his left hand. He jolted at the contact, prepared to be bitten, to be attacked, and then gasped as the other pushed him from the behind. When he spun around to look at it, the other grasped the full sleeve of his white tunic with its teeth and pulled him along.

He didn’t understand what was happening, why he wasn’t being attacked – unless it was a ‘wasn’t being attacked _then_ ’ type of thing – but he went along with the creatures. There wasn’t much else he could do, considering that he was so greatly outnumbered and they were so powerful. That they had followed him for so long and never done him any harm. Perhaps it was another thing about the Dark Road his mother had been wrong about, that he could ignore.

He went with the shadows wolves, surrounded by the pack as he ran.

*******

Andrew decided that he did _not_ like flying. He didn’t like being so far off the ground while enclosed in metal, away from the _earth_. Away from the dead. No, he didn’t like it. He spent the entire time it took flying from California to South Carolina doing his best not to show his fear, to not choke the smiling stewardess who kept leaning too close as she checked up on, to not do much of anything. At least the middle-aged man sitting next to him was one of the people who reacted negatively to him and kept to himself, leaning as far away from Andrew in his seat as possible. Andrew was fine with that.

It was a very long flight.

It only got worse when he departed the flight to find a nervous woman standing at the gate wearing an ill-fitting dress and a fake smile, with a teenaged boy standing next to her who looked just like Andrew except for a different haircut and a sullen expression, and an older man with greying hair and a grim face behind the two of them in a dark suit. Whatever relief Andrew felt at being back on the ground vanished at the sight of his ‘welcoming’ party.

He thought he felt a faint… a faint ‘something’ from his brother, from Aaron, but didn’t sense much of anything from his ‘dear’ mother, Tilda. Not that he had much time to try, because as soon as he got close to Luther, he picked up the disturbing chill of iron and braced himself, which was good because when the man when to clap him on the back, there was a cold burn from the thick ring on the man’s right hand. It took all Andrew had to not flinch, to not lash out, to not show anything, and only having studied Drake’s handcuffs prepared him for the pain.

Luther stared at him for several seconds before nodding once, as if satisfied, and then welcomed him to the family. As if that had been a sign, Tilda gave a slight, nervous laugh and asked him about his luggage, to which Andrew replied that he had a small suitcase he’d checked along with the bag he’d brought on the plane containing a couple of books. It wasn’t as if he had many possessions, just the few clothes that were considered ‘his’. He’d had to bury the handcuffs before he’d left California, and it seemed that the spirits had stayed behind.

Somehow, he didn’t think he’d be lacking new ‘friends’ for long. Not when he could already feel a few souls around him, now that he was back on the ground.

They went to retrieve his suitcase at Arrivals, Luther talking all the while about going back to ‘the house’ and eating the dinner that his wife was preparing, Tilda a bundle of anxious nerves and Aaron continuing his sullen silence as he cast quick glances Andrew’s way while tugging at the long sleeves of his light blue dress shirt. Andrew thought he caught whiffs of exotic scents as they walked through the airport, thought he sensed something as he passed various people who turned to stare at him, but they stiffened and turned away before he could do anything. It was annoying, but he thought he’d been right in leaving California, in answering Aaron’s letter.

If Luther and Tilda noticed that he didn’t talk much, they didn’t seem to care, and continued to discuss boring things like church and people he didn’t know as they drove to Luther’s home. They didn’t seem to care about what he was thinking or how he was feeling, or moving beyond the short explanation that had been in the letters about how he had ended up in the foster home out in California. Now that Tilda appeared willing to make up for her ‘mistake’ of putting up one of her own sons for adoption and could support both children, apparently he was expected to consider everything ‘all forgiven’ and move on, to be one big happy family.

Not exactly.

Luther Hemmick lived in a small two story house much like those of Andrew’s foster families, which didn’t put Andrew at ease. Nor did all the crosses on the wall, or the framed proverbs. He was a little surprised to see a picture of a smiling teenager a couple of years older than him and Aaron, an attractive young man with dark hair and eyes, his complexion similar to the petite Hispanic woman who had greeted them at the door whom Luther introduced as his wife, Maria.

It was Maria who asked Andrew about his flight, along if he would like something to drink while they waited for dinner to be ready. She appeared to be a quiet, shy woman, but Andrew noticed the thick, dull grey iron ring on her left hand – and the reddened skin around it. Noticed the heavy, simple metal cross hung around her neck, and the high collar of her dark blue dress.

“Who’s the kid?” he asked after a few sips of his iced tea. “In the picture?”

Tilda let out another nervous laugh while Maria stilled and Aaron looked directly at Andrew for once. Luther frowned, the expression even more grim than usual, and shook his head. “That’s my son, Nicholas. He’s… away right now. At a camp, where he’s learning to be a righteous Christian.”

Andrew thought about what his uncle had just said, thought about the iron the man wore, that his aunt suffered, and the metal scattered around the house. He thought about how there were no spirits around the place, despite how he had felt some along the drive through the neighborhood, and doubted that Nicholas had gone to the ‘camp’ voluntarily. He also wondered if it really had been his mother and brother who had sent for him and schooled his expression to remain impassive the enter time in the awful house.

Luther tested him three more times with iron, and despite the pain, the terrible sensation of his magic growing dull and weak, Andrew refused to show any of it to the man. He forced himself to not flinch, to keep on eating and drinking, and eventually Luther allowed Tilda to leave with him and Aaron.

Not that Tilda seemed to have any idea what to do with him. Nervousness and confusion radiated off of her while she showed Andrew around his new ‘home’, a sparsely decorated small two-bedroom bungalow at the end of a cul-de-sac. As soon as she could foist him off on Aaron, she did, and went into the kitchen to start drinking wine.

Andrew stared at his brother, his twin, a sibling he hadn’t even known he’d had until a couple of weeks ago, only to have Aaron stare back at him with a mixture of disappointment and anger. “Do you do _anything_? You’ve barely said ten words since you’ve gotten off the plane, and you look like… you look creepy,” Aaron snapped. “Your bed is the top one.” He pointed over at the bunk bed, which looked new.

Andrew shrugged to show that he didn’t care. “What’s to say?”

“I don’t know, that you’re happy to be here? Nice to meet everyone? The only thing you asked about was Nicky.” Aaron flinched as he spoke their cousin’s name.

“I don’t care,” Andrew admitted. This was just another temporary home to him, especially if Luther’s suspicions proved to be correct.

That made Aaron stare at him. “Then why did you come?”

“Why did you write to me?” Andrew countered as he held up his suitcase; Aaron pointed to a couple of drawers by way of an answer, so he began to unpack.

“Because… because right before we moved back here, Mom took me to a baseball game, some sort of going away present,” Aaron admitted. “We ran into a cop who kept calling me your name, and that’s when I found out about you.” He didn’t look happy about that, about realizing that he wasn’t an only child; Andrew couldn’t summon up much sympathy for his twin. “I kept pestering her about it, and one day Uncle Luther found out.” Now he appeared guilty. “Once that happened, he got on her, too, and… well, you know the rest.”

The ‘cop’ had to be Higgins, who had handled Drake’s death; it had been ruled an accident, but for some stupid reason, the man had taken an interest in Andrew, had stopped by a few times after that night to see how Cass and Andrew were doing, even checked up on Andrew at Angels over the last couple of years. Each time that he found out that Andrew had been ‘returned’ after a failed foster home, he seemed upset for some reason.

So Andrew had Higgins to thank for this latest turn of events, how nice. And Luther for wanting Andrew to return to his ‘lovely’ family. That wasn’t suspicious at all, was it? But why did _Aaron_ want him here? Did it have anything to do with that faint sense of energy he sensed from his brother? From that whiff of phosphorus and lime he picked up around Aaron now that they were alone and in the bedroom?

He wanted answers, but he knew better than to push right away, especially when he still felt the burn of iron on his skin. Instead, he finished unpacking and got ready for bed, ignoring Tilda as she sat in the kitchen steadily getting drunk off of wine, and a surly Aaron tucked onto his bottom bunk reading some comic book.

The spirits came to Andrew in the middle of the night, just two at first: an old woman and a young boy. They told him about the graveyard a few miles down the road (which might prove helpful), and the bodies which _weren’t_ in the graveyard (which also might prove helpful). They also told him some interesting things about Tilda which explained why Aaron had been covered up the entire time he’d known his brother.

Whatever his brother was, Andrew doubted that Aaron could speak to or control the dead – not if Tilda was still alive. He didn’t know what disappointed him more at the moment, that she was still alive or that Aaron hadn’t done anything to change that fact.

Andrew kept his voice pitched low as he spoke to the spirits, mindful of Aaron on the bunk below him, and eventually got some sleep in the strange home, grateful for their watchful presence over him. He woke up to cool fingers tugging on his hair to let him know that Aaron and Tilda were up, his body thrown off by the time change, and climbed down from the upper bunk to find Aaron waiting for him with a curious expression on his face. “Do you talk in your sleep?”

All Andrew did was shrug by way of an answer, and caught sight of a dark bruise on his brother’s left wrist before Aaron noticed it and tugged the sleeve of his faded blue and white pajama shirt down. After he tamped down on a flare of anger, he followed Aaron out into the kitchen, where a bleary eyed Tilda was mixing something together in a blender, something that smelled of strong herbs and something bitter, a cigarette hanging from her lips and her hazel eyes bloodshot. Andrew spied a small bottle the front pocket of her worn, pink velvet robe, and when she turned off the blender, she poured its contents into the three glasses sitting out onto the counter, added a little water into the blender and swirled it around as if to get every drop out from the inside of it, and added the watery mix to top off the glasses. “Here you go, drink up,” she said with a weary smile.

Aaron was still for a moment before he reached for a glass, his movements jerky, while the spirits howled at Andrew not to drink anything. Unfortunately, Tilda was watching him carefully, so he forced himself to grab the glass and swallow its contents down, his stomach rebelling at the thought that the thick, bitter green stuff could be poison. Aaron was gulping down his glass at the same time, and Tilda’s smile was almost affectionate when they finished.

“I- I’m going to go for a run,” Andrew said. “Need to… I like to run a little,” he lied as he set the glass in the sink, mind whirling about how much time he had and not helped by the spirits panicking.

“Oh, that’s good, it’ll help you get to know the neighborhood,” Tilda said. “Don’t go too far.” There was something to her smile just then, a knowing smirk, before she drank her own glass.

Andrew just nodded and rushed to change his clothes – he would have to do that as soon as he got up, if she was going to make him drink something each morning – and was out the door in about a minute. He forced himself to run once he was on the cracked pavement leading toward the sidewalk, but the moment he was out of sight from the bungalow, he ducked into some of the overgrown brush surrounding the edge of their yard and forced himself to throw up.

It tasted even worse coming back up, and he felt dizzy for a minute or two, until he walked around a little to help clear his head. One of the spirits watched over the house then returned to tell him that Aaron had gone back to bed, that Tilda was getting ready for work and had put the bottle in a locked drawer which also held some herbs. Andrew walked around for a few more minutes, and then began a slow jog back to the bungalow, affecting a sluggish appearance, to find Tilda smiling at him when he arrived – the expression once again was a little off, a touch malevolent.

“Ah, you’re back! I’m about to go to work, so you be good,” she told him. “Take the time to get to know your brother before school starts.”

Andrew gave her a slight nod before he made a show of heading to his bedroom, as if all he wanted to do was lie down. He could feel Tilda’s eyes on him until he closed the door, and found Aaron sound asleep.

He waited about half an hour until he was certain that she was gone, and then went into her bedroom, the spirits helping him again to keep watch and point him in the right direction. He’d learned to pick locks in the last couple of years (there had been a couple of spirits with some helpful talents to pass on), and no one paid attention to a couple pieces of stiff wire in his possession. Using those bits of wire on the simple lock of the drawer on Tilda’s dresser, Andrew had it opened in less than thirty seconds and was careful as he sorted through its contents. He had read enough books to have some sort of familiarity with the herbs, to recognize basil, rue and rosemary, and the bottle was labeled ‘laudanum’. A chill ran through him as he thought about what Tilda was making Aaron drink, what she’d tried to make _him_ drink. A chill that was replaced with fury at the thought of losing his magic, potent enough that he had to force himself to breathe in and out for a few seconds before he did something foolish such as allow the spirits to destroy everything in the room.

Once he was calm enough, he made certain everything was back in its place and locked the drawer before checking the rest of Tilda’s room. He didn’t find anything else of interest (other than the stashed liquor bottles), so he left, mind filled with various questions.

He searched the rest of the house while Aaron slept, and found a few odd drawings scattered about, drawings that made him feel strange when he saw them. The spirits were hesitant to talk about them, which made him think that they held some sort of power, that he had discovered something important, so he was quiet when Aaron did wake up and waited to see if his twin said anything.

Aaron said nothing.

Andrew was fed the disgusting concoction every morning, and every morning he went out and threw it up while Tilda got ready for her secretary job. Every day Aaron went about in a fugue and barely spoke to him, until about a two weeks later when Andrew caught his brother dropping a couple of glasses that he was carrying to the sink and Tilda reacted by lashing out and bruising his cheek with a harsh slap.

Andrew waited until she was drinking herself unconscious in the kitchen later that night to say something to Aaron. “How much longer are you going to let her beat you and drug you? Until you’re utterly useless?”

Aaron paused in pulling out his pajamas for the night to stare at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? What about that bruise on your face?” Andrew stared at Aaron until his brother looked away. “Or about the drugs she tries to force down our throats every day.”

That made Aaron react, to move across the room and yank the worn t-shirt he was wearing over his head to throw into the basket inside of the small closet. “I… it’s a vitamin drink, that’s all.”

“A vitamin drink with opium and herbs for exorcism,” Andrew told the idiot. “Why do you think she gives it to us, hmm?”

Aaron went still at the question. “It’s a vitamin drink,” he repeated, but he didn’t sound as certain as before.

“Why is Nicky at that Christian camp?” Andrew tried; for the past two weeks, he hadn’t been able to learn anything about his cousin – Tilda and Aaron didn’t say anything about the teenage. “Is it even a Christian camp?”

Aaron whirled around to face Andrew, and without his top on, Andrew could see the bruises, faded and new, all over his brother’s chest and arms. “You don’t- how do you know this stuff?”

“Because I’m not stupid,” he stated. “I don’t trust anything your mother and uncle do or want me to do.”

“They’re your uncle and mother, too,” Aaron pointed out.

“They’re strangers who didn’t give a shit about me until a few weeks ago, and are pushing iron and drugs on me,” Andrew shot back. “What’s going on?”

“It’s….” Aaron glanced at the door before pulling the pajama top on and going over to the door and opening it, as if making certain that Tilda couldn’t overhear him. Then he closed it and returned to stand in front of Andrew. “You… can you do stuff?” he asked, his face a mix of hope and anxiousness after he tugged at the hem of his top. “Can you-“ he shook his head as if uncertain about something.

Having a feeling that he’d have to prove something to get Aaron to continue, Andrew had one of the spirits yank back the sheets of his bed, which Aaron watched with wide hazel eyes. “I can do stuff,” he said, unwilling to elaborate more than that. “You going to tell your mother or uncle, have them come after me with iron?”

“You know-“ once again Aaron fell quiet. “What can you do?”

“No,” Andrew said as he folded his arms over his chest. “I want answers before I tell you anything else, not when your mother is trying to drug me and your uncle tested me with iron. Start talking.”

Aaron shuddered a little as he ran both hands through his blond hair, his expression one of hope and longing as he stared at Andrew. “I… I don’t know much,” he admitted, which didn’t make Andrew very happy. Something must have showed on his face since Aaron shook his head. “No, it’s true, Mom and Uncle Luther don’t talk much! All I know is as soon as I could… as soon as I started feeling things, when I felt different and had this energy in me, she started with the morning drinks. And Nicky….” Something resembling guilt crossed over Aaron’s face. “I think he’s like us too, that he has some powers, but… well, he’s a bit different in that he likes guys.” Something inside of Andrew’s chest twisted upon hearing that, especially when he noticed how Aaron grimaced when speaking. “So Uncle Luther sent him to some camp that’s supposed to make him better.”

Andrew was quiet for about a minute while he thought about everything, as he forced himself to remain calm in the face of what his brother was telling him. “So your mother and uncle don’t want anything to do with… whatever we are? Was that why they brought me here?”

“Uhm… maybe?” Aaron shrugged a little. “I think Mom wanted to forget all about you, but when Uncle Luther learned about you, he wanted you here.” Aaron once again appeared guilty. “Maybe he wanted to make sure you were normal.”

“Wonderful.” Andrew finally had a lead on what he was, and the people who knew hated everything about it. They were willing to abuse and drug their children because of their own nature. “And just what _are_ we?”

Aaron was quiet for several seconds before he sighed. “I don’t… Nicky would know more, but from the little I’ve heard… Mom said ‘Fae’ one or two times.” He gave Andrew a cautious look as if waiting for some sort of reaction. “There was talk about her sleeping with ‘some filthy Fae’, but I really don’t know more than that.”

‘Fae’. Andrew had read a little about ‘fae’ and ‘fairy’ when he’d been looking for an answer, and while that didn’t explain everything, it was some sort of answer. It was something for him to build upon, and he supposed explained the whole iron thing. “And her beating you?”

“Uhm, she’s….” Aaron twisted his hands in the hem of his worn pajama shirt. “She has a bit of a temper,” he tried to explain. “From work and everything.”

“From the drinking and the opium,” Andrew reminded him with a cold tone. “Are you going to keep letting her dope you up and block you from your talent?”

The question made Aaron glare at him. “What – how am I supposed to- it’s not-“ He shook his head before he resumed glaring at Andrew. “What do you expect me to do?”

“Fight back?” Andrew didn’t understand how someone related to him could allow another person to take away his power, could just give in like Aaron did. “I’m not giving my power to _anyone_.” The spirits whirled around him in response, enough to make Aaron stare at him with wide eyes and take a step back.

“How can you… that’s… you’re….” Aaron shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

Andrew narrowed his eyes at his twin. “Why not?”

“I can’t,” Aaron gasped as he wrapped his arms around him. “I need… you’re so much stronger than me.”

“Stronger?” Andrew regarded his brother, someone he hadn’t known about until a few weeks ago, and sighed as he took in how Aaron was huddled in on himself, as he thought about how Aaron meekly swallowed the opium and herb concoction, how Luther had sent off his own son to some camp to be ‘made better’ and Tilda seemed to follow Luther’s lead. “What, because I don’t let her beat me up?”

Aaron didn’t answer that, and things were quiet as they went to bed. Andrew didn’t get any more answers that night or for the next few days, during which he kept spitting up the vile ‘vitamin drink’ and he caught Tilda yet again smacking Aaron for being clumsy. When Tilda tried to hit him over him being ‘lippy’, one of the spirits made her stumble backwards; she was drunk at the time and didn’t seem to think anything of it, but Aaron seemed to notice.

Before things could escalate any further in the small house, they were invited over to Luther’s for the weekly Sunday dinner, where Andrew found an unexpected guest – Nicky Hemmick. His cousin turned out to be a quiet, withdrawn young man, his expression haunted as he gazed down at his plate, dark brown eyes filled with shadows and surrounded by circles and underweight body flinching every time Luther came too close. The one time he looked directly at Andrew, it was an expression filled with such pleading and hopelessness that Andrew felt a burning anger inside of him, anger and hatred toward Luther and Maria for putting their only child through such a thing.

So when he got home and Tilda started in on Aaron for having spilled something on his dress shirt, Andrew had had enough of doing nothing; he stood in front of his brother and gave his mother a cold look. “No more,” he warned her. “You don’t hit Aaron ever again.” He could feel Aaron tense up behind him while Tilda gaped at him in shock.

“I don’t- what do you think you’re doing, Andrew?”

“Putting a stop to things,” he told her. “You don’t hit Aaron ever again, do you understand?”

Now Tilda’s eyes narrowed in anger. “You think I’m going to listen to a brat like you?” She swung her hand out to smack him, which Andrew caught, his strength aided by his talent, by the earth beneath him.

“Yes, I think you will.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze until she cried out. “You don’t touch him again while I’m here.” Then he let go, before she noticed that something wasn’t quite right. “I’ll be watching you,” he warned as he headed for his bedroom.

He was up on his top bunk and reading one of his new books when Aaron crept into the room, eyes wide and demeanor uncertain. As soon as the door was closed behind him, Aaron began to speak. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Standing up for you, since you won’t do it,” Andrew stated.

“But… how can you do that? She… aren’t you afraid of her? Her and Luther?” Aaron asked as he came over to his bed and stood on the edge of it so he could look up at Andrew. “What if they- well, they can… uhm, take away… you know.”

Andrew set his book aside as he gave his twin a level look. “No, they won’t.” He had the spirits watching over him, so Tilda and Luther couldn’t hurt him. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

Aaron appeared dubious for a moment, and then shook his head. “Why are you doing this for me?”

“Why did you keep getting on your mother about me?” Andrew asked in return, curious about why Aaron had continued to hound their mother about him to the point that Luther had stepped in when he hadn’t seen Aaron stand up to her about anything else. “Why did you want me here?”

It was quiet for almost a minute before Aaron answered, his expression one of defiance. “Because… because I hoped that you would make things better, somehow,” he admitted. “I thought… I thought maybe if you still had your magic, you might be able to fight them.”

Andrew nodded as his suspicious were confirmed. “Well, you’re right, good for you.” He picked up his book but continued to look at his twin. “This is what we’re going to do – I’ll help you with Tilda, will keep her from harming you, but you do what I say, all right? It’s you and me from here on out.” Now that he had found someone else like him, he didn’t want to risk trusting anyone else, anyone ‘human’.

Aaron appeared to consider it for about a minute before he nodded. “All right, it’s a deal.” Desperation flickered across his face for a moment. “Just… I don’t want to end up like her, drinking all the time and no magic at all.”

“Then keep your promise and listen to me,” Andrew told his brother as he opened the book up to the page he’d been reading a couple of minutes before.

“Fine.” Aaron eyed him for several seconds. “So what are you? I think I could heal things, are you a healer, too?”

Andrew waved his brother away. “It doesn’t matter, now go away.” He ignored the virulent look Aaron gave him in favor of turning a page.

Hmm, so Aaron was a healer? Andrew considered that and his own talent for a few seconds once Aaron settled on the lower bunk, muttering beneath his breath the entire time, then discarded it for being useless to him at the moment. What he needed to focus on was getting rid of Tilda, something which shouldn’t be too hard with the help of a few spirits. He set the book aside again as he thought of various ways to deal with her, ways that shouldn’t raise any suspicions where his talent would be of good use.

It wasn’t like he lacked experience with staging accidents or anything.

He sat on his bunk bed while the spirits whirled around him, murmuring to him ideas on how to kill his mother, on what was needed to keep him and Aaron safe, and started planning on everything that was necessary for him and Aaron in the near future.

*******

Neil took a deep breath to steady himself, to prepare for something he had little inclination to do but also had little choice _but_ to do - to leave the Dark Road for a short while. There had been too many of his father's people tracking him down recently that he needed to venture back to the mortal world to gather supplies, to find enough materials to aid him with some protection and offensive spells. The Dark Road helped to keep him safe, provided him food and shelter and some means of defense, but he needed something more.

"I'll be back soon," he told the shadow wolves which had taken to following him, odd companions he'd come to rely upon since the first attack. They gave him something to talk to, even if they only 'answered' in yips and quiet growls and low, coughing barks, with gentle nudges of their heads against his legs and chest. He didn't know why they had seemed to accept him or at least not attack him, but he was grateful for their company, to have their sleek, graceful presence beside him while he ran or curled up next to him when he slept.

He suspected that they allowed him to keep some semblance of sanity, all alone in the Dark Road.

The tall, broad-shouldered male whom he'd named 'Nuit' rubbed his head along Neil's hip as if he understood before trotting away, and his mate (at least, Neil thought she was his mate, as they were always together) Ombré, gave a faint barking sound before she joined him. The rest of the small pack followed, and Neil watched them for a few seconds before he gathered his power and cast a glamour around himself then slipped back to the mortal world.

The first thing he noticed was how foul the air was, the taint in his lungs as he drew in breath, which had him bent over as he fought to cough it out. It had always been bad when he left the Dark Road or the knowes, especially around London or New York City, but this... there was a heavy taint of metal and something else in the air, something that left a bad taste in his mouth, something different from the soot and smoke he remembered. He fought to stifle the cough as best he could before he drew attention to himself.

Cloaked in shadows from the small space where he stood between tall buildings, he was shocked anew by the scenery around him, by the strange clothes people wore and the horseless carriages driving around in such great number. There had been one or two such things when he had been on the run with his mother, but to see so many of them.... them and something flying in the sky above, metallic and huge.

How long had he been gone on the Dark Road? He remained huddled in the narrow alleyway for several minutes while his mind attempted to catch up with all the changes, until his mother's voice in his head forced him to adjust the glamour and move on, to stop being a sitting target. Move, he told himself. Find some answers and the ingredients he needed, and then return to the Dark Road before anything bad happened.

Before his father realized that he had returned and the hunt began anew.

*******

Andrew leaned against the kitchen counter while Aaron sat at the table in the small house they’d been able to afford between Tilda’s insurance money and what Nicky had scrounged up by selling some dubious charms; Andrew had given his cousin a flat look when Nicky had come through with the money, but for once Nicky hadn’t ducked his head or looked aside, he had held Andrew’s gaze and shoved the wad of money into Andrew’s hand and sworn that nothing bad would happen as a result.

Still, Nicky didn’t continue to sell the charms, so Andrew figured it wasn’t best to ask too many questions about the money, to just wait and see if Nicky came through with the new job so they had a means to afford the upkeep of the house and to put food on the table.

Who would have thought that killing Tilda would have been the easy part? That using spirits to tamper with the old Ford Pilot’s brakes would be so easy, and then to pretend to be Aaron while riding with her to ensure that she was ‘properly’ startled. He’d counted on taking Aaron with him after the funeral and leaving Columbia rather than endure Luther any longer, considering that they both were underage, but Nicky had surprised him by stepping forward and standing up to his parents – to _Luther_ – and offering to become Andrew and Aaron’s legal guardian.

Someone still had a bit of spine left in him after all those months in that Christian camp after all.

Oh, Andrew didn’t think Nicky was doing it all out of the kindness of his heart – he believed that his cousin didn’t want to see Aaron and possibly even Andrew go through the same shit he’d been through – but Nicky seemed to latch on to them as his only way out of his father’s grasp, something he couldn’t do alone. Andrew hadn’t been as careful at hiding his true nature as he’d thought – at least to another ‘Fae’ - and Nicky had jumped at the chance of having someone else like him to cling to, to have around for protection.

For the most part, it worked for Andrew; it got him and Aaron away from Luther (between Nicky as an ‘adult’ guardian and a carefully drafted blackmail letter sent to the judge handling their case, thanks to a talkative spirit willing to spill the dirt on the man’s extramarital affairs) while finally providing some much needed answers on what he was. About how there were Fae in the world (not many, especially the purebloods), and how the Hemmicks had a bit of ‘magic’ in their bloodline. Not so much Luther, just enough for him to hate anything to do with the Fae and to want to stamp out everything connected with magic, but Tilda… oh, Tilda had been able to do things, once upon a time. Before her father and brother had all but crushed that bit of magic inside of her – but not before she had run away and married a man with Fae in him as well, until guilt drove her to run away again while pregnant. Until guilt had made her give up one of the sons she’d born, one of the Fae-blooded children.

Andrew wasn’t certain, but he had to wonder if she’d picked him because of his stronger Fae blood, had kept Aaron because his brother could pass as more ‘human’ than him.

Now he finally knew the truth about himself, about why iron burned and some people seemed to ‘glow’ to him, why he appeared to repulse so many people – _human_ people. He was a necromancer (which wasn’t that big a surprise after these last couple of years, other than _why_ ), Aaron had some earth-based talent that lent toward healing, now that the opium and herbs were purged from his system (and hadn’t _that_ been a fun ten days or so, sitting outside of the bathroom which Aaron had been locked inside of while he struggled to overcome what Tilda had done to him), and Nicky grew more confident as he reclaimed the magical bloodline from his mother’s side (he told Andrew and Aaron that Maria was an Iara, some type of South American water nymph, who had eventually made her home in Lake Chapala, where Luther had found her on a missionary trip and somehow convinced her to marry him and turn her back on her heritage). So far, all Nicky seemed to know was glamour and some dubious charms and spells… but it was still more than Andrew.

Nicky also knew about the magical community in Columbia, knew where the Fae congregated, and had gone off to apply for a job at a club where the magical community hung out. Andrew checked the clock while Aaron seemed to be reading his chemistry book for school – _seemed_ to. Lately, his brother liked to do anything that would spare him from having to talk to Andrew.

Someone wasn’t handling Tilda’s death very well, considering that she’d been an abusive, alcoholic drug addict who had been doping him up and suppressing his magical talent. Andrew felt an internal sneer for his brother but it wasn’t worth the effort to curl his lip.

He had just fetched himself a glass of water when a spirit called out a warning before Nicky burst through the kitchen door with a huge grin on his face. “I got the job!” he announced as he came to a halt near the table, his dark eyes bright and arms flailing. “You’re looking at the newest bartender at Eden’s Twilight!”

Aaron scoffed as he put a slip of paper in the book before he closed it. “Do you even know how to make any drinks?”

“It’s less difficult than whipping up potions,” Nicky said as he folded his arms over his chest. “Roland, one of the bartenders, told me he’ll teach me everything I need to know.” His grin made a comeback as he looked back and forth between Andrew and Aaron. “They’re happy to have someone like me there, since my talent with water comes in handy because I can tell who’s getting drunk and, uhm, you know.” He waved his right hand about again. “Help take the fight out of them by making them dizzy.”

Over at the table, Aaron appeared jealous for a moment before he got up to grab a bag of chips from one of the cupboards. “I can probably do that, once I, you know, learn about my talent some more.”

“Yeah, you’re just a bit behind because, uhm, yeah.” Nicky nodded as he gave his cousin a sympathetic look. "You’ll get there!”

Wasn’t that so nice? “What about the two of us, hmm? Will they hire us?” Andrew was going through the motions of attending school because he had to thanks to the whole custody thing, but there wasn’t much point to it now that he knew he wasn’t human – their best chance lay in making connections with other Fae and learning as much magic as possible. With getting as far from Luther and humans like the prejudiced bastard as possible. There were supposed to be ‘knowes’ out there, communities of Fae and people with magical bloodlines, but Nicky only knew that one got into them by invite. They needed to _earn_ that invite.

“I think so, at least in a little while.” Nicky noticed Andrew’s slight frown and shook his head. “Give me a week or two, all right? I think they want to check me out first and then I can bring you in.”

It wasn’t ideal, but if there was one thing that Andrew had learned in the last two months, it was that the Fae community didn’t exactly embrace its people with open arms if you weren’t pureblood or had been raised by outsiders. ‘Changelings’, the three of them were called, because they’d been raised by humans or mostly humans, never mind that Andrew was more powerful than some pureblood Fae and Nicky was half-Fae.

For the time being, Andrew continued with school even though he found it a waste of time, with the other students avoiding him like usual and Aaron growing more sullen with each passing day as it appeared that as his talent slowly came back, so did a sense of otherness which also made the humans leery to interact with him. Of course it did nothing to improve Aaron’s temper, and things became even more strained between him and Andrew.

By the time that Nicky came home one day to tell them that they could start working at Eden’s Twilight on the weekends and one or two nights during the week, Andrew was grateful for anything that would give him some space from his brother. He ended up in the kitchen, where he helped a half-Fae with Brownie blood of all things, a man even shorter than his own five feet with cocoa-dark skin and black hair and eyes named Oliver, while Aaron was stuck doing the dishes and running back and forth between the bars to grab the racks of dirty glasses and restock them with clean ones.

The staff, a mix of Unseelie and Seelie (Andrew didn’t understand the difference between the two, to be honest, but he knew enough to _not_ call an Unseelie Seelie and vice versa), were cool to them at first, but slowly started talking to them over time. They didn’t seem to be put off by Andrew’s necromancer nature or Aaron’s mostly latent power, by their general lack of knowledge in anything having to do with Fae. One person in particular, the bartender Roland who was mostly Tuatha de Danann, was a bit friendlier than the others. At least, he was with Andrew.

Maybe a little _too_ friendly, with his bright white smile and dark gaze lingering on Andrew’s face, the helpful murmurs of ‘she’s Leanan Sidhe’ or ‘he’s part Red Cap, avoid at all cost’. Roland gave Andrew free drinks when he stopped at the bar to help stock it with fruit for drinks or to get something to wet his throat during the shift.

Andrew had come to realize that he wasn’t attracted to girls in the last couple of years, that his attention was drawn to other boys, that seeing them and men would sometimes make him feel hot and flustered, would provoke such a strong sense of _longing_ in him. There had been a few embarrassing dreams which made him thankful that he had his own bedroom at last, dreams of men like Roland and- he forced himself to stop thinking like that, even though if there was one thing he’d learned while working at Eden’s Twilight it was that the Fae didn’t seem to share the same prejudice about homosexuality that the ‘human’ world did. He’d seen enough men kissing other men and women other women inside the club that the shock had finally worn off, though Aaron still acted disgusted by the sight.

No, while Nicky was delighted and could be caught kissing a different guy each week, Andrew was more cautious, was more reluctant to embrace that side of himself just yet when there was still so much that was unknown and he could still remember the feel of unwanted hands on him… and when he had also realized that if there was one certain thing about the Fae, it was that nothing was done for free. So he was on guard around Roland and the others while learning everything he could, he watched over his brother and his cousin, he listened to the spirits and he kept pushing with his power. It didn’t matter if it made the humans even more reluctant to have anything to do with him when it made the Fae respect him even more.

Word started to get around about him, about the short blond changeling (which apparently was an insult, not that Andrew cared) of too muddled a background to tell his bloodline without someone reading his blood (not going to happen) with more power than manners who helped the bouncers some nights when not working in the kitchen. There had been an offer from some uppity Daoine Sidhe with a knowe near Atlanta for Andrew to join his ‘court’, but Andrew hadn’t liked the man’s arrogant nature and had turned him down. Same with the Naga visiting from Trenton, who had been condescending toward Aaron and Nicky.

And definitely not the asshole tengu who had walked into the place thinking he owned it, with the quiet Tuatha de Danann at his back. So what if his uncle was supposedly famous, there was no way Andrew could last more than a minute or two in the asshole’s court, not to mention the fact that he’d outright dismissed Aaron and Nicky as inconsequential. Andrew had taken great delight in turning him down, something which he had a feeling didn’t happen often, and had a couple of spirits help ‘escort’ the asshole from the club.

Roland winced as he slid a shot of whiskey toward him. “You might regret that, as the Moriyamas are very powerful.”

“Ask me if I care,” Andrew told the bartender, allowing himself just a moment to enjoy the sight of how the man’s black t-shirt fit snug over that muscular chest.

“Stubborn as always,” Roland said as he shook his head. “But that’s okay, I like ‘em that way.” His smile took on a sharp edge, and Andrew wondered if maybe he shouldn’t take the man up on his offer to go out for something to eat one night. At the least, it would get him out of the house and away from Nicky and Aaron for a little bit.

For the time being, though, he had to get back to work, so he saluted Roland with the empty shot glass before he set it down on the bar then made his way back to help out Oliver, his mind distracted by Roland’s smile and a paper he had due for Social Studies. The asshole and his tall shadow in black and red were all but forgotten.

While he tried to figure out what to do with Roland, violence reared its ugly head to remind him that things weren’t always safe in the mostly non-human world he’d found in Eden’s Twilight. He was busy in the kitchen doing some prep work for the next day when several spirits whirled around him, their voices a jangled mess in his head until finally two words became clear – ‘Nicky’ and ‘danger’. Clutching the cleaver in his hand, Andrew spun around and ran out of the kitchen and into the mostly quiet club since it was near closing time on a weeknight, and found people edging toward the front doors; he used the spirits to clear a path for him and stumbled outside to find several strangers kicking Nicky, who lay on the ground curled up in a defensive ball.

“Andrew!” Aaron was already outside, his expression a mix of panic and relief. “You – they’re hurting Nicky!” he shouted. “Something about him being a changeling!”

Andrew used the spirits to shove his brother over toward Roland and a couple of other employees, who were yelling at the strangers to stop hurting Nicky and seemed to be trying to cast a couple of spells to calm them down - he caught sight of various charms etched onto the bastards’ black leather jackets, the gleam of silver around their necks and wrists. Oh, had they come prepared? Time to see if they could handle a few pissed off spirits.

Calling all the spirits around the club to him, Andrew channeled his rage at the four men, used that energy to lend strength to the spirits even as he lunged forward, as he pulled more energy from the ground to increase the force behind his punches; he might be short, he might not be well-trained, but he had survived almost sixteen years in foster homes and several school districts with children who despised him on sight, he knew how to fight and to fight dirty. Between the cleaver’s handle, his fists and boot-clad feet as well as the spirits, blood was spilled as the men – two of them sprouting goat horns, joined Nicky on the ground.

There were the sounds of people yelling, of screams, but Andrew didn’t care, didn’t let it stop him from having the spirits tear into the bastards, let it stop him from pummeling them with his fists and feet. As one of the men cried out something, he smiled, his lips pulled back from his feet, and flipped the cleaver around so he could bring the blade down, could make the bastard bleed even more, could make him suffer for daring to harm one of Andrew’s own. There was a wailing sound from the spirits and farther away, and then something heavy and hard and burning smashed into Andrew, smashed into him and knocked him into darkness.

*******

As much as Neil disliked the risks involved, as he detested everything about the mortal world, he slipped back into it for another supply run after using the last of the herbs and ground black tourmaline in a spell against the Seelie who had attempted to glamor him into a trap... well, what had seemed to be a couple of 'nights' ago, on the Dark Road. What Neill judged to be 'nights', since it was becoming increasingly clear that time didn't come close to matching up there and here, judging by how much everything had changed again. By the sleeker shapes of the automobiles, by the increasing sights of planes in the sky, by the bitter tang of metal and chemicals in the air and lines crossing overhead that hummed with electricity.

He was on the outskirts of a small city close to the Foxhole Court knowe, so there should be someplace nearby to purchase what he needed before he could flee back to the safety of the world he much preferred with its stillness and eternal twilight, its silence and shadow wolves and lack of people - save the random assault. He pulled the hood of his suede jerkin over his head and increased the glamour as he went out onto the sidewalk, the surface hard beneath feet used to the soft loam of the Dark Road, and allowed only the barest of contact needed to pick pockets until he had the necessary money; like everything else, the currency changed between his visits, he had found. Once he felt that he had enough (not that he always bothered to pay, but it was good to have it on him in case he did), he then wandered around, the feeling of sickness increasing as he breathed in the polluted air and suffered the presence of abundant metal, until he found the store marked with the glowing sigil which would only be visible to his kind or those mortals blessed with sight.

He glanced around once he went inside and frowned at the odd baskets near the door - 'plastic', he'd learned, an unpleasant material, and forced himself to pick it up. There was more metal inside, metal and glass and the distasteful hum of electricity, the floors cold and hard beneath his bare feet, and he noticed a Fae woman with blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a long skirt and blouse watching him with interest as he made his way through the various rows of items, searching for the sigils which helped him find the items he needed, the herbs and ground gemstones cleverly hidden away among odd things he still couldn't fathom. He had almost everything he needed, in a rush because of the woman's presence (she didn't appear a threat... but Neil didn't like how she stared at him, how she reminded him of his mother with her hair and sharp eyes) when the bracelet on his right wrist tightened hard enough to cause him pain.

He’d just grabbed mandrake root and decided to give up on getting anything else as he ran toward the end of the row for some shadows when he heard a mocking voice call out, "well if it isn't the fair Abigail, all by herself. Where are your guard dogs?" At the same time, Neil felt an aversion spell be cast, probably to drive away the mortals.

"You're a bit far from home, aren't you, Anton?" the woman - Abigail, Neil assumed, asked. "Did you get lost or something?"

"Oh no, I heard an interesting rumor that you had left your shabby little knowe to help out a pathetic Korred and had to see if it was true," the man said, while Neil hurried to shove all of his goods into the bag slung over his left shoulder – it looked as if he wouldn’t be bothering to pay that day, after all. "To think, not only was the story right, but Wymack actually let you out all on your own. It must be my lucky day."

"Surely not even you're low enough to attack a healer," Abigail said, and Neil paused in inching toward the nearest shadow; he should leave, should just go before he did something stupid, did something he'd regret, but he couldn't believe that _anyone_ would lay a hand on a healer, let alone brave an attack in the open like this. He told himself to go before he was noticed... and then thought about the blonde woman, of leaving her there while he fled to safety. Of how he’d failed his mother, whom this woman reminded him of, for some reason.

He really had been alone for too long and was going insane, company of the shadow wolves aside.

Certain that he'd stashed away everything that he'd picked up, he continued to sneak away, but instead of toward the shadows he went down another row of strange items until he could creep up behind what turned out to be four Fae men, three of them Unseelie and one Seelie, dressed in black and red. That made something flare in his mind but he pushed it aside as he pulled a knife, and the woman noticed him right as the man standing closest to her - Anton, perhaps - reached out his glowing right hand.

"No!" she cried out, either at Neil or the man, but Neil didn't halt his strike and swiped the blade along the back of the Ghillie Dhu's neck standing near him, his awful talent flaring to life as energy poured into him. It gave him the strength to counter the vicious curse that Anton had just cast, one that would have had the woman writhing on the floor while screaming in pain... but now had rebounded on Anton himself.

"Who the hell are-" The Seelie nearby gaped at Neil as he jumped out of the way, a knife held in his own right hand. "That magic, it can't-"

Beside him, the Unseelie, a Ly Erg, began preparing a new curse, so Neil dashed forward to grab onto a shocked Abigail and pulled her into the shadows with him, onto the Dark Road just long enough for him to take her closer to the Foxhole Court, while she gasped in surprise. As soon as possible, he slipped back into the mortal world and pushed her away. "You should be safe now, yes?"

She stared at him in confusion before looking around. "You're... you're a shadow walker?"

"You're safe now, yes?" he repeated, desperate to get back to the Dark Road and put some space between him and those men - he realized now, what those colors meant, which court they must belong to and it wasn't good.

"Yes," Abigail stuttered. "Thank you," she said with a solemn reverence, which shocked Neil, hearing those words spoken so blatantly, at having a possible obligation admitted to him by a stranger. "Who are you?"

He hesitated only a moment, since he should have enough items in his bag to complete the necessary spell. "Neil," he told her, right before he used the shadow of a tree to slip away, to return to his home.

Once there he ran as far and fast as possible, ran until he came to one of his hidden stashes and grabbed the old, odd clothes then found the nearest stream where he scrubbed himself as clean as possible with sand in an attempt to rid himself of any trace of the mortal world. After changing into the scavenged outfit, he then built a fire and burned the other clothes, and was in the middle of casting new charms when the pack caught up to him. Ombré nuzzled him along his right cheek and Nuit his left shoulder as if scenting him, and he felt something inside his chest loosen at their presence. "I came across Moriyama people today," he told them, as if they could understand. "They were attacking a healer, the Foxhole Court's healer and...." He shook his head, his thoughts jumbled and reasoning still confused as to why he didn't just leave, while Nuit bared his teeth and Ombré gave a low rumble. "I don't know if they recognized me." He had his glamour, but it had been more to keep any humans from recognizing him as Fae than anything, and there were only so many shadow walkers out there. There were only so many Fae who could drain another Fae's magic upon death.

As soon as the charms were done, he ran some more, some of the new charms wrapped around his wrists and another hung around his neck. He ran with the shadow wolves until exhaustion made him stop, and after eating some fruit, curled up among them to sleep for what felt to be a few hours. The pattern repeated itself after that - running until exhausted, eating to fuel himself and then seeking comfort with the wolves, all the while waiting for his past to catch up to him.

Neil never knew if he should be thankful or not for how time seemed to stand still in the Dark Road, how it might have been a few weeks or a few months since that time near the Foxhole Court when the two Unseelie dressed in black and red tracked him down at last. All he knew was that he was almost grateful for their arrival, for his paranoia to be proven justified, and nearly smiled at the surprise on their faces when they saw the shadow wolves fan out around him; he had the impression that they had been waiting for him more than that they had tracked him down.

"Nathaniel," the Gwyllion said as she eyed Neil with evident apprehension, for some reason staring at his face the most. "We've been sent to bring you back.

"No," Neil told her, surprised a bit himself that they still called him by that old name, by something which held no meaning to him outside of nightmares and old scars. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Come now and Lord Tetsuji will think more kindly of you." That was from the Urisk, who held two short spears with jagged blades in his hands. "You can't ignore your debts forever."

Neil stared at them in confusion, failing to understand what they meant. "Debts?" All he knew about Tetsuji was the few times he'd been in the man's knowe, back when he'd still lived with his father. Those times when he'd played with Tetsuji's nephew, Riko, and Tetsuji's foster son, Kevin Day, while Nathan had performed some sort of tasks for the man. "What are you talking about?"

The two Unseelie exchanged looks before the Gwyllion shook her head. "Play dumb if you want, but we've orders to take you back." As soon as she finished speaking, she yanked at a charm around her neck, the same time that the bracelet around Neil's right wrist tightened in warning - Neil was moving in an instant, as soon as he felt it constrict.

The charms on his wrists and carved into his skin took the brunt of the spell which smelled of moss and stagnant water while he fought with the Urisk, and he gritted his teeth as he took a cut to his left upper arm before he could dig the tip of his own knife into the man's lower right ribs. As soon as the blood began to flow, his talent kicked in and he gritted his teeth even as he felt invigorated by the rush of energy, as his wound healed and power filled him - some of which he directed to the charm around his neck, a charm meant to change his name once more.

Except nothing happened as the charm remained dormant.

Surprised by the lack of magic, he stood there as the Urisk lay unmoving at his feet and missed the moment when the Gwyllion fled back to either the mortal world or a knowe rather than face the pack any longer, the scent of blood heavy in the air. The pack yipped and howled in disappointment at having their 'fun' taken away, and then flowed toward Neil to enjoy their meal. He took a slow step aside so they could eat unhindered, a frown creasing his forehead as he pulled the charm from his neck.

He didn't think that he'd messed it up, even if it was his first attempt and a complex spell – it was one of the few difficult ones his mother had explained to him. Why hadn't it worked?

Had he been ‘Neil’ too long? Was one of the ingredients bad? If he couldn’t change his name, couldn’t throw off any trackers that way… it would make it easier for his father and Tetsuji to find him, even in the Dark Road.

Neil watched the shadow wolves feast on the dead Unseelie and had a feeling that his companions would have many more meals in the near future.

*******

Andrew sat in the small, dark cell with hematite walls, ceiling and floor with the barest cover of dirt to keep his skin from burning, but not enough for him to use his talent, to allow him to cast any spells or call any spirits. It was a steady drain on his body and mind, was enough to put him in a fugue state – that and the potion they'd forced down his throat wasn't helping any, the potion to eat away at his anger and replace it with a numbing happiness.

If he wasn't angry, he couldn't fight, they seemed to think. He couldn't fight and destroy things. Oh, how little they knew him, when all he really knew was how to resist and fight and destroy.

He'd begun to lose track of how long they'd kept him in the cell, as the meals were sporadic and there were no windows to the outside to give him an idea of if it was night and day, when the door opened to reveal one of the guards in brown and pale yellow livery, a tall young man with dark green hair and golden skin who had been at the door over a dozen times before, and an older man with skin the color of weak coffee and dark brown eyes, black hair threaded with silver and flame tattoos on his exposed arms. He was dressed in worn jeans, scuffed leather ankle boots and a plain black leather jacket slung over his left shoulder.

"Little old for the James Dean look," Andrew told him with a mocking grin. "Do me a favor and go find a tree to crash into, and leave me alone."

"Yeah, you're just as charming as I'd heard," the man said. He stepped into the room and shuddered as the door was closed behind him, his skin taking on an ashen tone as he was surrounded by so much iron, but let out a slow breath as he reached into a pocket of his jacket for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "So, you're Andrew Minyard, one hell of a powerful necromancer."

"Well, not at the moment," Andrew corrected with that too wide smile as he forced himself to sit up, his legs crossed and his hands idle on his lap. "Someone's a bit unhappy with me."

"Right, not at the moment." The man glanced around the small cell. "And it’s the SEC who isn’t too happy with you almost killing four people."

Andrew just continued to give the man a mocking grin. "Ask me if I care. Is there a point to this or can I go back to sleep? I’ve a very busy schedule, after all."

The man blew out a plume of smoke as he sighed. "Look, I'm David Wymack." When all Andrew did was stare at him, he sighed again. "Of the Foxhole Court, a knowe a bit north of here. It's not the biggest or the fanciest, but we have a history of taking in people who could use some help."

"Good for you," Andrew told the man in a tone laden with sarcasm. "Remind the guard on your way out that they're a bit late with my dinner, why don't you."

"Titania's tits," Wymack ground out as he flicked ash onto the floor. "I came here because I thought maybe you might fall under that category, you mouthy little dwarf, you and your family." That got Andrew's attention. "The Southeastern Council's all for letting you rot here, and no one's going to step forward to help you or them out, not when you've displeased the SEC. No other knowe will invite them in, will offer them protection."

"Except you," Andrew sneered. "What makes you so special, so willing to stand up to those pricks?" He'd barely heard of this ' Southeastern Council' before... he thought it had been about a month ago, but couldn't be certain. A month since that night at Eden's Twilight.

Wymack shrugged. "Because I don't play games and I don't care about much beyond me and mine. I'm not trying to gain some fancy title or make myself popular, I just want to protect my own little court and the people who've come there for shelter." Something dark crossed over his rough features as he dropped the cigarette to the dirt floor and ground it out. "The SEC – all of the Councils were set up to help police things, to keep order, but they’re susceptible to outside influence and mistakes. I don't want to see three young men's lives ruined because a bunch of uppity old bastards are afraid of someone with a lot of power and not enough training."

Andrew stared at the man - he thought Wymack might be Daoine, but there was something else to him, something grounding and almost soothing. "You'll take in Nicky and Aaron?"

"I said all three of you and I meant it, my word and my bond." Wymack nodded once while he met Andrew's steady gaze. "Right now those bastards want you to be someone else's problem, so they'll let you walk out of here with me." He paused a moment while he hiked up his jacket a little more over his shoulder. "They want you kept on the potion, though. Something about you needing to be kept under control until you learn to control your talent and your... well, until you learn better."

"Really? It seems to me I already know enough about the first," Andrew said while the potion making him laugh at the irony of it all; if he didn't know enough about his magic, how could he have hurt those assholes so much? As for his temper, if that was what Wymack hinted at… right, good luck with that, especially after being locked up like this for doing what was right.

Wymack paused as he glanced over his shoulder, his expression all of a sudden guarded. "Look... come with me, join my court and we'll work something out," he said, his voice pitched low. "We'll train you so you don't need it, right?"

Andrew's smile slipped a little for the first time since the man had walked into the cell, a rare spark of hope blooming inside of him when he’d been without any since that night out in the parking lot. "Give my brother and cousin sanctuary and... work with me on this... this thing," he managed to choke out, "and I'll join your pathetic court," he swore.

Now it was Wymack's turn to grin. "You've got yourself a deal." He swung his jacket on while he continued to look Andrew right in the eye. "I'll go track down someone who has the authority to let you out of this cage - with luck, we'll be at the Foxhole in a few hours."

Someone was an optimist, weren't they? Still, anything had to be better than surrounded by so much iron, so Andrew bit back on the smart remark that hovered on the tip of his tongue - well, mostly. "I can't hardly wait."

Wymack shot him a narrow look before he turned toward the door. "Try to work on the enthusiasm, okay?"

Andrew allowed the potion to tug his lips into a wide grin, and got another weary sigh in return. "Oberon's balls, let's hope I don't regret this," Wymack muttered as he banged on the door.

Andrew silently echoed the sentiment, but there was no turning back - he had for the most part sworn himself to the Foxhole Court as a loyal vassal. He did indeed hope that Wymack didn't regret it because he didn't go back on his word… yet he also didn't do 'vassal' very well.

It was going to be a very interesting... huh, just how long did Fae live?

*******                                                

 

 


	2. Lifeline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, here's where the non-con warning comes into effect, mostly for this chapter. It's NOT explicit at all, there's a vague reference to a past event, a vague reference to it happening to another character and of course to a current character's situation... it's vague. If you want me to go into detail, you can always question me on tumblr (nekojitachan), but this is something that will not be gone into in any detail.
> 
> So there's that (some reasoning down below), and there's Andrew on 'meds' (sorta). I don't know, I tried a bit different mindset for him here, but I didn't want the usual 'Andrew all hyper on meds' because it's not quite the same circumstance. Hopefully it worked.  
> *******

*******

As it turned out, Fae could live a very long time.

Andrew was _not_ happy about that fact.

He should have realized it before they got to the Foxhole Court, before he accepted Wymack's offer... but really, it was a difficult concept to believe, that someone could live that long. That the people he saw at Eden's Twilight could live for centuries. That some of them _had_ lived for centuries.

That _he_ might live for centuries.

The Foxhole Court turned out to be near some sleepy university town named Palmetto, in the woods on the other side of the campus. The knowe's inhabitants would leave their cars (those who had them) on the edge of campus parking, glamoured to blend in with those of the students and faculty, and walk a small path also glamoured to keep the 'mortals' at bay to an old oak tree where they spun around ‘widdershins’ three times (yes, Andrew found it ridiculous) before knocking three times below a certain branch to be let in.

Once inside... well, it was magic, he supposed. Magic that made the place feel safe, made it feel so inviting with the pale grey stone buildings and simple yet abundant gardens and worn but well-built furniture, the muted earth-tone colors of the thick rugs on the floors and the hangings on the walls depicting all the damn foxes in so many shades of creams and whites and oranges and reds. Dan, a dryad with short, cropped dark brown hair and skin the color of warm, burnished walnut wood (Andrew could see faint striated lines like elongated tree rings in her skin if he got close enough, which he rarely did) told him that the knowe wasn't as 'fancy' as some of the others but it was a good place, was strong and one of the oldest in the country, and he found himself believing her. At the least, he realized that it wasn't worth the effort to argue with the woman as she was Wymack's figurative right hand and backed the man in _everything_.

Not only was he stuck in a magical fairy land with a zealot who was a walking tree, but he was stuck in a magical fairy land with a zealot who could live for centuries. At least, he was until he got his hands on enough lighter fluid and then fun times for all. Hmm, he did love s'mores.

Oh, wait, except there was a pesky naiad who was always hanging around with the too sweet smiles and the too bright eyes which didn't quite hide the darkness lurking inside – she could put out the fire, dammit, among other things. Little goody two-shoes Renee, with her rainbow dipped hair and long skirts and high-necked shirts as if she was hiding more than darkness. Renee, who helped to clear the 'happy juice’ from Andrew’s blood those times when he would be back in the knowe long enough for Wymack to judge it safe to allow Andrew a reprieve, as per their agreement.

The old man had honored his word, had gotten Andrew out of that awful iron-lined room and into his custody, but it wasn't without cost (the good old Fae way - nothing without a price and the higher the better). The SEC was convinced that Andrew was a threat (just give him time, he’d show them how right they were), that he was too much of a 'changeling' to ever gain control of his talent. Wymack had countered that Andrew just needed time to learn how to use it properly, time and a safe environment, and had argued down Andrew's 'sentence' - a hundred years on the damn potion, from what would have been five hundred. A hundred years or Andrew demonstrating 'sufficient abilities', which everyone knew was a fucking joke; for some reason, the SEC was against Andrew.

"Five hundred years is pretty much forever for most changelings," Wymack explained as he drove Andrew, Aaron and Nicky to the Foxhole Court in a beat-up Chevy sedan. "Not always, but for most." Andrew caught Wymack's gaze flickering to Aaron, sitting in the backseat. "They're trying to break you."

"That's not going to happen," Andrew gritted out as he did his best to fight the urge to grin, to laugh, while the potion thrummed through his blood.

"No, it's not. We'll train you, like I promised." Wymack grew quiet for a moment. "You honor your word, you help out my court, and we'll do everything we can for you. We'll work around their ruling."

'Helping out the court' meant that Andrew had to tag along with some of the other losers sworn to Wymack such as Matt and Alison while on various 'assignments', to fetch this item or guard that one, offer safe passage for this stuck up Fae lord or act as muscle for some twittering Fae lady. The Foxhole Court was known as neutral in the grand scheme of things, unaffiliated with other knowes and their squabbles, unwilling to cater to the ‘Courts’ such as SEC. As Dan said, they might not be grand or very rich, but Wymack had pulled some impressive people to his side (fucked up, but supposedly impressive) to defend the knowe, so few Courts or knowes wanted to take them on directly. Especially when they had a very powerful, unstable necromancer changeling in their mix.

Andrew more or less put up with the stupid assignments because once he was back in the knowe, once he was safe in his new home and there were no guests visiting, he would suffer Renee's hands on him and let her strip the potion from his blood for a few days of clarity. He couldn't go without the detested thing for very long - the happy juice, as he’d taken to calling it, was addictive and only the SEC had the true antidote, but he could manage a few days without it and the sickening artificial highs.

Yet for that short amount of time he could be himself, could be free of the controlling drug, of the SEC's heavy-handed influence, of someone yet again forcing something else down his throat that he couldn't reject. But it didn’t last for long. No matter how much the spirits raged and whirled around, he had to make himself drink the awful thing for Aaron and Nicky's sake - the SEC had made it clear back in that horrible cell and before they let him go off with Wymack who all would pay the price (there it was _again_ ) if he didn’t obey their ruling.

There were worse things than an iron-lined cell.

Andrew may have allowed himself a couple of weeks to wallow in the rage - what was left of it beneath the drug - to lock himself inside of his new rooms with only the spirits as company except for when necessity or an assignment forced him out, and then he faced the fact that the Foxhole Court was his new home, his new reality, and the only way to beat the SEC was at their own game. He didn't care about anyone other than Aaron and Nicky, but he would do what he’d always done and move forward despite the odds, would take care of himself and his own. On his own terms, of course, as much as possible.

That meant dealing with Renee and Bee - Betsy to everyone else - a Leannan Sidhe whose knowledge of spells was diverse, especially when it came to illusions and mental trickery. She was big on talking, on asking seemingly innocuous questions and Andrew how he was feeling, but she didn't pry when he told her to drop things and in some odd way she helped, which was all that mattered.

"There's a reason why changelings are looked down upon," she explained one day as she had him sit inside a circular ring of various milk-white crystals. "Not just because you aren't a pureblood, though there's idiots aplenty who think tracing your lineage back to Oberon and one of his queens without interruption is all that matters." Her plain face - plump cheeks framed by brown curls and startling clear brown eyes obscured by glasses, something he hadn't seen too many other Fae wear even if the lenses were thin and flashed an odd gold color from time to time which indicated that they might be enchanted - twisted with a grimace to show what she thought about most Fae's obsession with bloodlines. "But because you were raised among humans and so didn't learn how to properly use your talents."

"That's bullshit," he argued with a bitter smile, the ever-present spirits whirling around him as several of the crystals turned the color of dark smoke. "I can use them just fine."

Bee regarded him with an even look for a few seconds. "You only _think_ you can use magic ‘just fine’ - since it's the only way you know how. If a child grows up in darkness, he doesn't _think_ he needs any light."

Andrew made a rude noise at that bit of nonsense. "I'm getting bored here." He motioned one of the spirits toward some of the crystals so it could knock the dark rocks over, then cursed when pain jolted through him as the spirit seemed to bounce back against some invisible barrier. Meanwhile, Bee smiled as a few more of the crystals grew dark.

"Still bored?"

"What the _hell_?" How had she blocked the spirit like that?

"You rely too much on the couple of tricks you know," she told him as the smile was replaced with a more considering look. "You let your emotions - your anger and your fear-"

"I'm not _afraid_ ," Andrew snapped. He hadn’t allowed that emotion to control him since Drake.

Bee was quiet for a moment before she gave a slight nod. "Not for yourself, not anymore, but for others," she clarified. "You worry about others, and there’s that need to protect them coupled with your anger, which you allow to drive you and feed it to the spirits." She let out a slow breath and shook her head. "It's not wise, it's _never_ wise to do magic from such an emotionally driven place. If you break down, your magic breaks down.” She gave him a knowing look while she spoke; neither of them wanted to bring up the night in Eden’s Twilight parking lot.

"Sure, you tell me that _now_ ," he muttered as he glared at the crystals. "Such a shame that no one gave me a neat little book explaining things. How I could kill Tilda for such an oversight - oh, wait, too late, I already did." He bared his teeth at Bee in a mockery of a grin.

What a shame that his little joke didn't rattle her too much, though as always she wasn't amused. "One would almost think that your desire for a reaction over your mother's death would be you looking for a displacement of your own guilt, but I already know you better than that, Andrew. I also know you well enough by now to see that for the weak deflection attempt that it is." She motioned to the dark stones around him. "Your talent, while powerful, is stunted by the way you express it. That's not your fault," she was quick to add when his expression grew as blank as possible with the happy juice, as he refused to think about what Tony Williams had been able to do to him back when he’d been a little child and before he’d first ‘expressed’ his talent. Back when he’d said ‘please’. "It sought the only outlet it had, driven by your need. Now we're going to correct that."

"I am filled with rapturous joy," he declared as he toyed one of the crystals while pushing those memories back into the deepest part of his mind, and snorted when the crystal cracked between his fingers.

"Yes, I could tell." Bee's smile thinned out as she adjusted her glasses while looking at him, then she took a deep breath as if centering herself. "Ple- ah, contain yourself before we're both embarrassed."

The woman was somewhat tolerable, especially when she stopped bringing up his past and focused on the lesson instead.

So Andrew was stuck relearning his magic the 'right way', to control the spirits through will and thought, not reaction and emotion and blah blah blah. To channel the energy from the earth and funnel it into spells and charms, to create jinxes and curses - all of that while hampered most of the time by the damn potion - which he was sure was the SEC’s intent, just another way to fuck him over. One would think that it would give him something in common with Aaron since his twin was also learning all of those things only in regards to his own talent, was spending most of his days with Abby, the Foxhole Court's resident healer - would _think_. Except as much as Andrew fumbled along, half the time (at least) bored with his lessons and only pushing forward because of his determination to prove the SEC wrong, his biggest issue was having too much magic to control. Aaron? Too little magic.

Bee said it might be an after-effect of Tilda drugging him for so long, of being around so much iron. She also said that Fae genetics, like the Fae themselves, could often be cruel and capricious - one only had to look at Seth for proof of that. The young man's mother had been half-Selkie, his father half Cait-Sidhe, and he'd gained precious little from both bloodlines - no sealskin, no cat form, no ability to traverse the shadows, nothing. Too Fae to be human, both too human and too 'other' to be considered truly Fae. Too stupid and powerless to be of much use, something Andrew took too much pleasure in pointing out to everyone, especially Seth.

Hmm, for some reason Andrew didn’t get along well with his new ‘friends’. So much sorrow, how would he ever go on?

It wasn't like Andrew had asked for all his magic ability and to be stuck working alongside morons like Seth and Matt and his cousin Nicky. To be basically trapped in an enclosed, magical environment with a brother who barely talked to him. He was almost tempted to try the goblin fruit which some of the Fae used as some sort of party drug, but after watching Seth act as an even bigger asshole after the bastard ate some and hearing about how Matt had become addicted to some enhanced version of it for a short while, Andrew decided to stick to just alcohol. Alcohol and his occasional backroom visits with Roland.

After a few years of vacillating back and forth between the forced highs of the SEC’s potion and the almost numb moments of clarity, Andrew’s pent up frustration finally won out over his issues and childhood traumas.

 _Mostly_ won out.

Roland had a charming smile and an impressive physique, but most importantly, he listened to Andrew during their time in the one stockroom at Eden’s Twilight, he kept his hands where Andrew told him and didn’t complain about the spirits, and never commented about Andrew showing up some nights for only drinks. In return, Andrew never remarked if at the end of some nights, Roland left with someone else.

It wasn’t love, it wasn’t _dating_ , it was a convenient arrangement, nothing more. It was… it was a very Fae thing. Andrew was almost torn between disgust and bemusement over that fact, but in the end didn’t care enough for either.

Of course his arrangement with the bartender didn’t do anything to help things with Aaron, even though Nicky had started a long-distance relationship with a Huldafolk named Erik from the Shining Sands knowe near Carmen by the Sea in California. Despite the growing hostility between them, Aaron continued to go with Andrew and Nicky each time they drove to Columbia in Andrew’s new Dodge Charger (the myths about Fae gold were true, much to Andrew’s… well, delight was a bit too strong. Though Wymack wouldn’t be pleased to find out about his little trick – not that Andrew had any intention of that ever happening), continued to only go on assignments with Andrew, continued some odd, intertwined life together. A life where they half-ignored each other while rarely being out of the other’s sights, where Andrew watched over him either in person or through the spirits, where he ignored his brother’s rants about interfering with his life whenever Aaron become stupid about this little human slut or that one.

Andrew had promised to protect his brother, to watch over him, yet there were days when he dearly wanted to throttle his twin to death. Perhaps it was a good thing, the damn happy juice – at times it was the only thing keeping the surly, miserable bastard alive.

At times, it was the only thing keeping most of the _knowe_ alive. After the third incident when Andrew had used the spirits to shove Allison out of the nearest exit (most often a window, regardless of what floor they were on) rather than put up with her inane prattling (she was a Valkyrie, she’d survive, unlike her pathetic boyfriend, Seth), he’d been dubbed ‘the monster’.

He actually thought it was rather fitting, and more appropriate than ‘the short-ass changeling’ he was normally called.

It was rather amusing to watch Wymack mutter about the SEC cursing him whenever Andrew grinned at him and caused some new type of trouble. Not that Andrew delighted in causing trouble. Not at all. He was merely working on that ‘empathizing’ thing Bee had gone on about and sharing his misery with everyone else.

The one bearable thing about being Fae was that time appeared to have less of hold after a while. The days seemed to bleed together in the knowe, especially when the happy juice had its claws sunk deep in Andrew, all those manic hours rushing together with those too brief moments of lucidity - moments which he wasn't certain if he longed for or hated anymore, to be honest. Forays back into the 'real' world for the burn of alcohol and rasp of cigarette smoke (he'd taken up the habit at first to annoy Wymack by stealing the man’s cigarettes and then to help deal with the bad taste he always got in his mouth when he left any knowes) and the rare trill of pleasure, the adrenalin rush of a fight when someone would try to take on him and the other 'Foxes' (as those sworn to Wymack were called by the other Fae). He watched on in amusement as the human world changed around him, as fashions grew outrageous and the cars grew sleeker and faster and everyone took to protesting about something.

"Such passion, one has to admire them for it," Renee murmured as she looked out the windows of the room where she and Andrew were stationed as guards to the gathered crowd outside; Dan had used her ability to travel through the trees to bring them to Berkeley, California to take part in a parley between the Morning Star and the Thornless Roses knowes. Andrew was as bored as he could be while also drugged, his skin itching from the presence of iron scattered about and the unfamiliar surroundings. Oh, and a bunch of stupid humans protesting outside, a few stories down.

“You admire, I’m going for disdain,” Andrew told her while he sneered at what were probably a bunch of idiot students already exempt from the draft and ongoing war. “What a waste of energy.” He flicked ash onto the expensive carpet and slumped a little further down the wall he leaned against.

“It’s not a waste of energy for them to stand up for what they believe in,” Renee argued, a rare frown on her round face as she turned toward Andrew. “For them to stand up for peace.”

“Says the woman who’ll turn the blood of the first Fae who tries to interrupt the parley into sludge.” Andrew gave her a mocking grin. “So _peaceful_.” The naiad’s whole ‘peace, love and don’t fuck with me even though I’m so cute’ attitude annoyed the hell out of him; he’d been with Wymack for over ten years now and still hadn’t figured Renee out, still had to keep _pushing_ in an attempt to get at the darkness she struggled to bury deep. He knew she was hiding something and he’d figure it out one of these days – he had time. Oh, how he had the time.

Renee’s face grew mottled with red as she reacted to the jibe, then she forced herself to calm down and shook her head. “One day you’ll have something to believe in and it won’t seem so ridiculous to you.”

“There’s a better chance of Oberon returning,” Andrew scoffed as he turned back around to look out the window, and amused himself by having a couple of spirits torment the protestors while Renee murmured admonishments at him until the parley was done. Then they had to wait until the police came to chase away the idiot protestors (Andrew might have had the spirits help a bit with that, since he saw no reason he got left out of having some fun), before the four of them could make it back to the Tilden Regional park, where Dan was able to use a suitable tree to ‘step’ them back to Palmetto.

The Foxhole Court was fortunate to have a dryad powerful enough to use trees to travel like that (even though it was annoying as fuck to only be able to teleport or ‘step’ or whatever between trees old or strong enough to allow Dan to do that bit of magic), since Fae with the ability to create teleport spells or who possessed the magic to travel through shadows (such as full-blooded Cait Sidhe) weren’t easy to find anymore.  Andrew supposed that was why Wymack made the decision he did when they were attending some stupid party at the Endless Twilight knowe somewhere in Virginia (at least there were lots of trees there), thrown by some member of the SEC (Renee and Aaron kept Andrew in their sights at all time during the evening, as did several very large Daoine Sidhe armed with broadswords and sheathed iron knives wearing Endless Twilight colors when all the guests had been told to come unarmed).

A decision which had all of them sworn to the Foxhole Court leaving a rather boring party early with a bloody lump of a Tuatha de Danann carried by Wymack and Matt, wrapped in Wymack’s best coat and Abby’s cloak yet having the ill-grace to bleed all over the orange and white material. Andrew brought up the rear while drinking straight from the bottle of potent wine he’d swiped on the way out, which earned him a displeased look from Dan. He merely grinned around the opening of the bottle before she opened the portal through the tree, and the two of them were the last to go through.

The spirits whispered to him about black and red, about ravens, which didn’t make sense until Wymack and Matt laid out their party favor on the nearest flat surface – a wooden table which often collected various odds and ends such as letters for the various Foxes, the occasional weapon or book and the such – in the large foyer of the first floor of the knowe’s main building. As soon as the ruined coat and cloak were unfolded, Andrew huffed as he finished off the wine and stared down with the rest of Wymack’s motley group of vassals at the unconscious and bloody form of Kevin Day, son of the renowned (and dead) Kayleigh Day and foster son of Tetsuji Moriyama.

“What the hell?” Dan breathed out in shock. “Who would do something like that to him? Was he attacked outside of Evermore?”

“Not… quite,” Wymack said while Abby motioned for Aaron forward to help her heal the injured Fae and Renee murmured to one of the cleaning staff to fetch some clean linens. The Daoine Sidhe regarded all of them for several seconds, concern evident in his dark eyes, before he nodded once. “It’s not a secret that I knew Kevin’s mother, Kayleigh. I studied magic with her for a decade or two, and in return she helped me find this knowe.” Emotions flickered over his face for a couple of seconds – sorrow and pride foremost among them – as he glanced around the large foyer before his gaze settled on Kevin’s supine and battered form. “It’s probably because of that and the Foxhole’s reputation that Kevin sought me out with a teleportation spell after Riko Moriyama broke his left hand and beat him up.”

“What? But that’s his-“ Seth didn’t finish that statement while beside him, Allison shook her head as if in denial; Andrew didn’t know much about Kevin Day, didn’t really care about the young man, but he knew about his mother and that he was supposed to be a talented as hell magic caster and swordsman. A swordsman who fought with his left hand.

Well, _had_ fought with his left hand, considering the mangled mess Abby and Aaron were dealing with at the moment. Hmm, was there more wine somewhere? Andrew sent a couple of spirits off to fetch him another bottle since most of the household staff seemed to have disappeared for the night.

Beside Dan, Matt looked ready to pass out, the dark skin he’d inherited from his Ifrit mother turned an ashy brown from the same shock that was affecting most of the Foxes. “How could he do that? Riko and Kevin were raised as brothers, weren’t they?” Andrew scoffed at that ridiculous statement as he gave Aaron a pointed stare, but Aaron was too busy at the moment to respond.

Wymack shook his head. “I don’t know, Kevin could barely explain all he did before he passed out, but I know enough that he needs our protection and he’ll get it.” Now the man appeared mulish, which meant that things were going to be a pain in the ass for the rest of them – or at least Andrew. “Any complaints about that?”

The rest of the loyal little lackeys were quick to agree with him, though Seth appeared a bit sullen, while Andrew just gave Wymack a too-wide grin. His mood was somewhat restored with the arrival of a fresh bottle of wine, so he waved to the idiots as he made his departure while having a couple of spirits stay behind to watch over Aaron.

“Andrew? Where the fuck are you going, you damn dwarf?” Wymack called out after him. “Aren’t you going to stick around and help?”

“Help out how? Seems to me you have more than enough people to hold Day’s one good hand.” That comment earned some muttering from Dan and Matt, and an amused chortle from Seth. “There’s nothing I can do unless he dies,” Andrew stated as he walked away, preferring to be left alone save for the spirits and some alcohol.

So of _course_ Day had to prove him wrong.

The bastard had to get him when he was at the tail end of a ‘clarity’ period, when he was itching in his own skin for a damn potion and doing his best to stretch out the moment a little longer, to not grab the bottle waiting for him in Abby’s lab which would smother the futile anger with the artificial feeling of hyped up happiness which disgusted him so much, which was slowly yet surely burning him out on the emotion.

It wasn’t as if he’d had much cause to ever be _happy_ in his life, _truly happy_ … and now he never wanted to feel the emotion again, real or not.

He just wanted to be numb and left alone.

He wanted _Kevin Day_ to leave him alone, yet the pest stood there in the doorway to his quarters, barely held at bay by the spirits as he glanced around; he’d lost weight in the last several days and his left hand was still bandaged despite all the healing spells and potions poured down his throat, but other than that….

No, he still looked like shit.

Kayleigh Day had never named the young man’s father, but he’d inherited her Tuatha de Danann nature and her green eyes, though his skin was possessed a richness of color, a warmth to it that was in contrast to the one or two tapestries Andrew had seen depicting the tall, pale woman with dark hair and emerald eyes. He was a couple of shades lighter than Nicky which made his green eyes stand out, made for an attractive picture despite the pointed ears which most full blooded Fae possessed and the faint double scars on his upper left cheek… until he opened his mouth.

“You’re as powerful as they say you are,” Kevin said by way of ‘hello’, “even for a changeling.”

“That’s nice,” Andrew gave him a curt nod. “Now leave me alone before I break some more bones.”

Kevin’s eyes went wide at that. “No! I need to talk to you!”

Andrew didn’t care and motioned for the spirits to shove the pest away… except Kevin didn’t even budge. The pest appeared smug about that and nodded. “See? You don’t know everything.”

“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” When Andrew stepped forward to use brute force, Kevin held up his right hand, his left held cradled against his chest in a sling.

“No, hear me out, all right, I can help you! We can help each other, I promise!”

It wasn’t often that a Fae said those words, so Andrew felt mildly interested despite himself and anything that distracted him from the fast-approaching crash and him all-but crawling to Abby made him nod. “Fine, get in here.” As soon as Kevin entered the room, a spirit slammed the door shut just to prove to Andrew that his power still worked. “How did you do that thing before?”

Kevin reached into his borrowed orange shirt (it appeared to belong to Wymack) for a charm. “If you know enough and are prepared, there’s things you can use to protect yourself from necromancy.” His expression became resolved as he tucked it back beneath the soft cotton. “If you were properly trained it wouldn’t work since you’re so powerful, but you’re still only using part of your talent.”

Andrew glared at that. “I’m trying.” He sure wasted enough time with Bee.

“I know.” Kevin sighed. “Part of it is I’m sure whoever is training you probably doesn’t know much about necromancy.” He grimaced when Andrew’s glare went up a notch. “No, I’m not insulting them, but it’s not a common talent.” Then he did some glaring of his own. “Though really, are you trying hard enough? From what I hear about you, you spend half your time sleeping and drinking and- ah!”

Andrew ended the reprimand about his character by waving a knife in front of Kevin’s face. “Right now I’m about to help you into an early grave. Why are you bothering me, other than you seem to enjoy a good character assassination?”

“But it’s all true-ah I need your help with Riko!” Kevin rushed out when the knife was once more brandished in his face.

“Riko? How so?” Andrew remembered the cocky bastard from the one night at the club and the stories he’d heard about Tetsuji’s heir, about how Riko was supposed to be just as good a swordsman as Kevin if not better. Maybe. There seemed to be some debate about that lately. “One would think he made it clear that he didn’t care for you.” Andrew motioned toward Kevin’s damaged hand as he stepped back; iron must have been used on it, since it was proving so stubborn toward healing.

Kevin flinched for a moment then took a deep breath as if to steady himself. “He didn’t intend for me to get away,” Kevin admitted as he stared at his left hand. “I… well, I managed to get a hold of a teleportation charm and a few other things after he thought I was passed out. He has to be looking for me now.” That last came out rough and low, the words distorted by fear.

Andrew regarded the young Fae for a couple of seconds while the spirits whirled around him, while they urged him to beat Kevin down and snatch away the charm, to deal with the potential threat before Kevin regained his strength. “Tell me the truth,” he told the pest. “I’m not going to help you if you lie to me.” When Kevin’s head snapped up, he clicked his tongue and tapped the flat of the knife’s blade against the knuckles of his left hand. “How did you escape and why is Riko after you?”

“But….” Kevin shook his head for a moment before he tangled the fingers of his right hand in the hem of his borrowed shirt. “All right.” His shoulders slumped forward before he spoke again. “Jean… he’s someone who serves Tetsuji and Riko.” A bitter laugh escaped him for a moment while a bleak expression came over his face. “No, he was _given_ to Tetsuji and Riko for some debt of his parents, I don’t know what, but he’s stuck there at Evermore, sworn to them.” Kevin’s eyes took to staring at the floor while he talked and became unfocused. “But we always got along. I always thought Riko and I got along, too.” There was a wry twist to his lips for a moment. “At least, until the last few months when Riko kept pushing me to fight him, to have jinx duels and would want to test new curses against me. I never tried to show him up, it didn’t matter to me who was the best but….”

In Andrew’s experience, ‘it didn’t matter to me’ was easy to say when you had everything, when you were confident in your ability. “Let me guess, he pushed for a fight and he lost?”

“No!” Kevin looked up at Andrew with wide eyes and a slight flush that spread across his cheeks and straight nose – a look of guilt. “Uhm, no,” Kevin repeated in a quiet voice.

“You let him win,” Andrew clarified.

“I didn’t… but yeah, now that I think about it,” Kevin admitted as he deflated once again. Hmm, Andrew was sensing a distinct lack of a backbone in someone.

“Gee, and he didn’t appreciate it, so much so that he beat you up and broke your hand.” Kevin’s shoulders hunched inward a little more. “What happened next?”

Kevin took a deep breath as if to gather his strength. “Jean waited for him to leave and helped me gather what I needed so I could leave. It’s the only way I could get out of Evermore.” He took another breath and managed to look Andrew in the eye. “That’s why I _need_ your help – you’re the only person I know who told Riko ‘no’, who didn’t give him what he wanted. I need you to keep Riko away from me, to keep him from taking me back to Evermore.”

Andrew scoffed at that, having trouble believing that someone had never told the spoiled brat ‘no’ before… but it was mildly interesting, to spoil Riko’s fun like that. “What do I get for my efforts?”

“I’ll teach you,” Kevin offered in a rush. “I know magic, all I’ve done for the last seventy years or so has been to study it, study and learn how to fight. I can help you. I’ll get you off of the… off of that drug even faster.”

He wasn’t anywhere near as old as Bee… but there had been that charm. The closest thing Bee had to it was that stone circle of hers, and that was targeted more against any magic as a teaching aide. “Hmm, decisions,” Andrew drawled, just to make Kevin squirm, before he reached over to grab his pack of cigarettes from a shelf and shook one out. “Fine, I suppose it’ll give me something to do for the next couple of decades, keeping you in one piece.”

Kevin sagged with evident relief while Andrew lit the cigarette. “Tha- ah, it’ll work, you’ll see.” Then he narrowed his eyes. “We’ll start tomorrow,” he said as he straightened up. “I’ll talk to Wymack and Betsy to arrange an adequate area for us to practice in, to stock up the supplies we’ll need, so be prepared.”

Andrew blew smoke in the pest’s face. “Good luck.”

“I’m going to drag all of that potential to the surface, just wait and see.” Now Kevin appeared determined as he turned around to leave. “You have too much for it to sit there being wasted.”

Andrew enjoyed the rare swell of emotions in his chest while he smoked the cigarette, of anticipation and untainted amusement and something that just might be hope, before the itch came back and he stomped off to Abby’s lab. Everyone avoided him for the rest of the day, and the next… oh, the next Kevin learned why he should be more careful when he made bargains.

So should Andrew, as he had to deal with one of the most infuriating, opinionated, obstinate, arrogant yet cowardly know-it-all bastards alive. Kevin Day did indeed have a wealth of knowledge about magic crammed into that head of his, enough to impress Bee on an almost daily basis, and when he wasn’t trying to get himself killed by trying to cram it into _Andrew’s_ or by lobbing curses or jinxes Andrew’s way in an effort to make Andrew learn, then he was doing whatever he could to learn how to fight right-handed as his left hand never fully recovered from the damage Riko had inflicted upon it.

At least it wasn’t just Andrew the coward annoyed, as the rest of the Foxes were at first bemused by Kevin’s presence and then flat out aggravated. Kevin had been raised in one of the most prestigious knowes around, had been given fame and accolades as his ‘due’ for his skills with magic and fighting and his lineage, was a pureblood of undisputed power. Seth hated him on sight and Aaron couldn’t stand him. Dan tried to get along with him for a short while, but his patronizing attitude wore thin after a few weeks, especially when he started to challenge her for her position as Wymack’s second (Andrew didn’t think Kevin did it intentionally, the arrogant bastard was just used to people following his lead and not the other way around). Of course anyone Dan couldn’t stand was an enemy to Matt, and Allison looked down her elegant nose at Kevin right from the start.

Renee, wolf’s in sheep’s clothing that she was, did her best to get along with Kevin, but Andrew caught a flare of darkness in her eyes a time or two when Kevin talked down to a ‘mere’ naiad. “Try to tell me that you’re not tempted to boil his blood,” Andrew taunted her after they had to take part in another of Wymack’s charity projects together – her, Andrew, Kevin and Aaron – where they were on a stupid supply run. Kevin had been even more of a pompous ass than usual during the trip, all smiles once they reached the community of changelings and smaller ‘Fae’ such as Kobolds and Brownies, and then his usually stuck-up self once they were back in the Charger. Part of his bad attitude was Andrew’s refusal to use a teleportation spell when he had a chance to drive.

“While he may be a bit… trying at times, I remind myself that it’s a lot for one person to adjust to, going through so much upheaval,” Renee said in that annoyingly placid manner of hers as they made their way back to the knowe from the parking lot. “He’s owed a bit of patience.”

Over eight years’ worth? “Liar,” Andrew taunted before they reached the oak tree.

Renee smiled at that, her expression pure mischief. “Well, I am _Fae_ , it’s expected.”

Speaking of upheaval, the knowe was going through a bit of it as well, what with Wymack being in a bit of a pissy mood with Abby about something and Dan so furious that the trees were rustling hard enough to send leaves flying everywhere, Matt’s eyes were glowing red (Andrew couldn’t wait to meet a real Ifrit one day, fire was _so_ amusing), and Bee appeared ready to cast some sort of spell on all of the morons.

“What did we miss?” Andrew asked Nicky, who chewed on a thumbnail while eyeing everyone with obvious nervousness; beside him, Aaron stood with his arms folded over his chest in a show of boredom, but Andrew noticed the handful of charms that his twin held.

“Ah, Abby went off by herself and almost got caught by some Moriyama knights.” Nicky winced when Andrew tensed up and a spirit knocked over a vase that someone – probably one of the many refugees who filled the knowe – had filled with flowers from one of the outside gardens.

“What… where were they?” Kevin asked, his voice tight with strain and his eyes wide.

“Next town over,” Aaron answered, sounding as bored as he looked. “Don’t worry, they’re either dead or gone.”

Well, wasn’t that a pleasant surprise? “I may actually respect Abby now,” Andrew declared, which earned him displeased looks from his twin and Renee, and shocked ones from Kevin and Nicky. “What, don’t tell me that any of you thought she had it in her,” he scoffed. Though her possessing a bit of backbone spoiled the fun for him, dammit; he had thought that he’d proven to Riko in the last few years that it was pointless to send anyone to either Palmetto or the Foxhole Court in an effort to drag Kevin back to Evermore, him and his helpful spirits.

“Perhaps because it wasn’t Abby,” Aaron explained. “It was some stray Fae guy she ran into who took a couple of them out and then shadow walked her back home before disappearing. Allison and Seth are out trying to find him, but Wymack said it’s probably hopeless.”

For once, Kevin stopped panicking after hearing the dreaded ‘M’ word without having to imbibe a shitload of alcohol or Andrew smacking him around (which also ruined Andrew’s fun) to gape at Aaron. “A shadow walker? Really? Do you know how _rare_ they are? I’ve only….” For some reason, the excitement faded from his face and he cradled his scarred left hand against his chest. “I’ve only known a couple, and they’re gone now.”

“Yeah, well it sounds like this one’s gone, too.” Andrew made a rude gesture as he started to walk away. “If there’s no pesky birds for me to kill, I’m going to bed.” Which was a lie – see, _he_ could be a good Fae, too – but being all charitable annoyed the hell out of him and he wanted to drink for a couple of hours in the idiot-free comfort of his room while Wymack and the others got over their snits and Kevin bored someone else with his talk of rare Fae and magic.

One advantage of Abby’s little ‘adventure’ was that Riko seemed to forget about all about what had happened to his people the last time he sent them sniffing around the Foxhole Court, so even if being outside on ‘guard’ duty meant being on the damn potion longer, it also meant that Andrew got to put all those long, frustrating years of training with Kevin to good use, got to vent a little (all right, got to vent a _lot_ ), and send some lovely presents shambling their decaying way back to Evermore (under glamour, of course, at least until they reached the knowe). He didn’t know why Riko all of a sudden was so determined to get his hands on Kevin again after almost a decade of relative peace, but soon enough the egotistical prick calmed down.

Andrew was only slightly disappointed by that.

Riko put in his place once more, Andrew was pulled back into the tide of magic practice with Kevin and Bee (even as he wondered if it there was a point to it – he kept getting better but the SEC didn’t give a damn, obviously, other than to make sure he continued to remain drugged), forced to put up with the other Foxes and Wymack’s inane assignments, with Aaron’s sullenness and Nicky always hovering in the background. He dealt with all of that when all he really wanted was to be left alone, just him and the spirits, to slice into his veins until the fucking potion drained out and he didn’t have to feel the awful fake bubbling mirth inside of him anymore, he didn’t have to deal with anyone or anything and could just lay in his bed or read or do whatever the hell _he_ wanted for once.

Had he ever done just that?

How _did_ the Fae live so long? How did they bear the weight of years? He wasn’t even sixty yet and he felt so damn old, felt weighed down by so much and sometimes it felt as if he couldn’t remember all of the last… fuck, so much of the last couple of decades were a blur despite his eidetic memory, was a manic blend in his head. Was Aaron and Kevin and the rest of the Foxes, was Bee and Wymack. It was all California, was pre- and post-spirits, was Columbia before and after Tilda’s death, and then the Foxhole Court before and after Kevin. It wasn’t years anymore but events, and ever since he’d arrived in South Carolina so much of it centered around the oaths he’d made.

So much of his life centered around magic.

He couldn’t work up the energy to hate it, not when it was such an integral part of him, but he didn’t love it, not as much as Kevin did, nor did he crave it as much as Aaron did. At the least, he didn’t crave the status it would give him as much as Aaron did. Perhaps that was part of what had driven the two of them apart. Well, that and him killing Tilda.

Bee seemed to pick up on him withdrawing from things and attempted to help, to get him to open up, but he withdrew even more, his manic smile a shield to keep everyone at bay even as he was surrounded by Kevin and Aaron and Nicky, as he fled the knowe as much as possible in his car (now a Maserati 3200GT – Wymack suspected _something_ , but knew enough by then to pick which battles to fight and that… oh, that wasn’t one of them), alone when possible and with the other three when not. There was always Eden’s Twilight to lose oneself in drinks (and sometimes more, Roland as obliging as always), and the ‘human’ world for brief periods of time to take in the latest invention or whatnot (Nicky was always up for shopping, Aaron for something to eat and Kevin had a fascination with their history books, if only to rant about what they got wrong).

If there was one good thing about being Fae, in living so long, it was being able to enjoy fast new cars (for once his smile was genuine when he thought about how much better the Maserati was to Tilda’s pathetic Ford Pilot), to watch Aaron’s fascination with mobile phones (even if it didn’t work in the knowe), to listen to Kevin rant about how the Fae needed to get serious about things like computers because there was so much information right _there_ for them to use.

In fact, he was subjugated to one of those rants while stuck on an assignment with Kevin and Wymack while out in a knowe in Arizona, one they’d taken on as a favor to an old friend of Wymack’s: a half-Trow by the name of Hernandez. He was in charge of security at Stardown, and it seemed that someone was managing to slip into the knowe and raid the warehouse where they stored supplies which they sold to much of the southwestern knowes and Fae communities.

“You’re certain it’s not an inside job?” Wymack had asked right after Kevin had teleported them into the knowe with one of his spells.

Hernandez, an older changeling with black hair threaded with grey and a dark complexion that probably had more to do from his Trow blood than anything, shook his head. “No, everyone here is under geas.” When Wymack grimaced upon hearing that, he shook his head again. “We agree to it, it’s not that bad. So yeah, we can’t figure out how the thief is sneaking in.”

“Give us a little time, we’ll catch ‘em,” Wymack all but promised.

“Like I told you, there’s no set pattern, but we got some new stock in so I think now’s probably as good a time as any. Let me know if you need anything.” When Andrew went to say something, Wymack shot him a dirty look to make him keep his mouth shut.

That was how he ended up bored out of his mind and without anything left to read, stuck listening to Kevin go through his spiel about how humans kept making computers faster and smaller, that they were able to carry them around places so the Fae needed to pay better attention to things. They needed to be more involved with the devices, maybe figure out a way to make electricity work in the knowes or have more Fae involved in programing because neglecting humans and their inventions didn’t work that well for them. While the bastard rambled on, Andrew got up and went over to the one table, where Wymack had left his sheathed sword before wandering off (bathroom break, the spirit of the teenage boy told him), and checked in with the rest of the spirits as a distraction.

There were a couple of rats scurrying about, a sleeping cat too lazy to do its job, a starling nest up in the far east rafters and- oh, wait, what was that? _Finally_ , something to do.

“Kevin, shut up,” Andrew murmured as he picked up the sheathed sword since he’d had to leave his staff back at the knowe – _someone_ wasn’t any fun - and began to creep forward, toward where the one spirit had indicated where the intruder was currently rummaging through a shelf. Hmm, wait, the spirit said that the intruder had just looked up. For some reason… for some reason the spirit, that of a young woman, became nervous. “Get a spell ready.”

“Wait, is it-“ Kevin shut up even as he reached into the special leather pouch on his belt and pulled out a couple of charms. While he did that, Andrew had the spirits create a disturbance, something in the opposite direction they were coming from, right as Kevin tossed a charm into the air that caused the warehouse to be flooded with light.

Andrew heard Wymack call out something from behind them the same time he heard a curse be muttered ahead of them and the faint sound of feet, and shoved Kevin behind him while he stepped aside and swung out the sheathed sword and grinned. Just as he had counted on, he caught the fleeing thief across the chest and down they went, tumbling tumbling like a puppet with its strings cut, how _fun_.

Time to play.

He had just unsheathed the sword when Wymack shouted at him, “Dammit, Andrew! This is why you don’t get to do anything! Back off!” When he hesitated, Wymack shouted again. “ _Back off_!”

“Fine,” Andrew huffed as he kicked the still choking thief, catching them right between the collarbones. He motioned for the spirits to hold the bastard down… but they wouldn’t come any closer. “What?” he snapped at them and motioned again.

Meanwhile, Kevin cast a spell or something and gawked at the thief for some reason. “What – wait, why didn’t that take?” He threw one of the charms at the bundle of worn clothes and looked ready to scream when it just bounced off of the thief’s right shoulder then hit the ground. “That’s not possible!”

“Oberon’s balls, what the hell is going on? Who are you?” Wymack took a step toward the thief while snatching his sword away from Andrew, which only made the thief, still gasping for breath, scramble back on his hands and feet.

“Nuh-stay away,” he managed to choke out while he looked up, the hood of his old-fashioned jerkin falling away to reveal a tangled mess of brown curls which looked as if they’d been hacked at by a three year old with a knife and then left uncombed for a month or two, huge brown eyes wide with panic and a face that spiked Andrew’s interest despite the ridiculousness of the situation between those sharp cheekbones and narrow chin. The thief was dressed in an outfit that looked as if it belonged in some medieval movie and lacked shoes on his narrow feet, and had at least a couple of knives strapped on him.

Something like pity flashed across Wymack’s face, perhaps because of the fact that the thief appeared to be barely larger than Andrew and scrawny as hell, and was maybe about sixteen years old. Maybe. Then again he was Fae, judging from how he had stymied Kevin’s magic somehow, so it could all be one hell of an impressive glamour. “Look, kid, we’re not going to hurt you, okay? We just want to talk to you.”

“No promises,” Andrew sang out as he pulled a knife free from his left armband and tapped it against his left knuckles, the happy juice tugging a wide grin on his face as he stared at the ‘kid’; Kevin’s light spell was fading and casting long shadows back in the warehouse once more.

“Dammit, Andrew, I don’t need- _fuck_!” Wymack spoke for all of them as one moment the kid was sprawled out on the floor and another moment, as soon as the shadows fell across him, he was gone.

“Shadow walker,” Kevin breathed out in a reverent tone as he stepped forward to pick up his fallen charm. “He was a shadow walker.”

“No shit,” Andrew drawled as he eyed the now empty spot on the floor. “Guess they’re not as rare as you said.” How… frustrating. Looked as if he didn’t get to play after all. Andrew frowned in disappointment, both in having his toy snatched away and all the unanswered questions, such as what had frightened his spirits and how the kid had negated Kevin’s magic.

“Dammit,” Wymack repeated as he rubbed at his face. “That had to be Abby’s Neil, there can’t be two young shadow walkers like him out there. She’s going to be furious when she finds out we finally came across him and he ran away because _someone_ beat the shit out of him and threatened him.” His glare just then made it clear _who_ was going to take the blame on that one, oh joy.

Andrew gave the asshole the finger while Kevin stood there with the charm in his hand. “But how did he get into the knowe? What about my spells?” Kevin looked over at Wymack with confusion evident on his face. “Shadow walkers… how many do you know can slip in and out of a knowe like that, one that hasn’t been opened to them?”

Wymack’s expression changed from angry to troubled. “You’re right, I don’t know of any shadow walker who can do that, not even a Hatford.” He ran his right hand over his head, his left still holding on to his sword. “Let’s go talk to Hernandez and tell him that we at least solved the mystery for him. I don’t think… something tells me that the kid isn’t going to come back here, not when he knows there might be people watching for him.” The anger returned, only for a moment, to be replaced with pity. “That kid had ‘runner’ emblazoned all over him.”

“If he can breach knowes, he has every reason,” Kevin stated as he slid the charm back into his pouch. “Imagine what-“ he stopped whatever it was that he was about to say and shook his head.

Gee, what would the ever-peaceful, never-greedy Fae want with someone who could breach the one safe, secure thing in their lives, the knowes? Andrew had no clue, no clue at all.

Too bad the thief hadn’t stuck around, he could have made things interesting.

*******

Neil huddled against the tree with the pack all around him, with Ombré curled up next to him and Nuit in front of him while the man on the Dark Road called out for ‘Nathaniel’. “No,” Neil murmured to Ombré, who shifted around enough to look at him with a question in her liquid black eyes, the unspoken offer to go out there to hunt, to feed; Neil didn’t know if he’d finally given in to the madness or not, but he swore… he swore he could understand the shadow wolves somewhat now, could find some meaning behind their yips and growls and coughing barks, in the way they cocked their heads to the side and the smiling bare of teeth. “Leave this one be,” he asked his friend.

There was a memory buried behind pain and distance of a man with grey eyes just like his mother’s, with blond hair a shade darker than hers and face not quite as delicate but demeanor so very similar, who had met them on the Dark Road once, who had given his mother some money and charms, had hugged her and tousled Neil’s – no, _Nathaniel_ ’s hair – before stepping back into the mortal world. It was the closest Nathaniel had ever seen his mother come to crying, that time she’d watched her brother step _away_.

Neil didn’t know why Stuart Hatford was looking for someone who didn’t exist anymore, but he didn’t wish the man ill anymore. He merely wished that the man would go away.

He wished that all the people chasing after him would go away.

It had been such a terrible mistake, helping that Fae women in the store, in revealing himself to the Moriyama knights. Perhaps if he’d killed all of them it would have been all right, but one had managed to escape and report back to Tetsuji and now it seemed that everywhere Neil turned, either Tetsuji’s or his father’s people were hunting for him. He didn’t understand it, didn’t know anything about that ‘debt’ the Gwyllion had talked about, he merely knew that he was so very tired of running because he was being chased.

Neil fell asleep while waiting for Stuart to go away and woke up to the warm press of the wolves surrounding him, and for a while everything was all right. He got up, had some water and fruit and then they ran, they ran for joy and not fear, because there was so much of the Dark Road ahead of them that they had no choice but to chase down the never-ending horizon. He ran and he ate and he slept, and laughed when the wolves came across the small creatures he’d never noticed when with his mother (some of them were almost like rabbits, some were like crosses between badgers and hedgehogs, and some… some were unlike anything he’d ever seen) and hunted them with excited yips.

And then the people would find them, would use teleportation spells or portals or something to gain access to the Dark Road and then lie in wait for him. Neil would fight them off with his magic and knives and the shadow wolves, but doing so depleted the few items he had for spells and it had become too risky to venture out into the human world after the run-in with Moriyama’s people. It was as if there were spies watching out for him (highly probable, considering how powerful his father and the Moriyamas were), so he had chanced breaking into a knowe one day and been surprised when both he’d been able to breach the sanctuary’s ‘borders’ and no one had been alerted to his presence.

He couldn’t take too much from a knowe and risk being noticed, and thought he had been playing it safe by stealing from Stardown. He’d remembered his mother’s lessons and had only taken random items at random times, made sure to not do anything that could be considered a pattern. He’d only taken what he needed, and slipped past the guards on duty with ease.

Then he’d been caught… he wasn’t sure what it was, but he’d felt _something_. Something that made the detested magic inside of him flare to life, made it want to reach out and grab hold onto… he wasn’t sure what. So he finished grabbing what he needed, and was almost done when there was the sound of something being knocked onto the floor. After that, he was off and running toward the shadows, right when a light spell went off and blinded him.

He’d continued to run on instinct, right into what felt to be a metal bar or something. After that, it all went downhill, was him kicked breathless by some grinning maniac only to find _Kevin Day_ attempt to cast spells at him.

Neil hadn’t stuck around after that.

It was bad enough to have Tetsuji Moriyama sending his men after Neil, but to see Kevin and be reminded of the day that had started it all? Of that time in Evermore when he had thought that all he’d be doing was play with swords and jinxes with Riko and Kevin, just like he’d done on previous visits, only for the three of them to be led to a room where his father soon took apart a Jack-In-Irons with a dull ax. While his father slowly dismembered the giant, Neil had felt something awaken inside of him, something reach for the life flickering out in front of him.

That night his mother took him and they hadn’t stopped running. At least, _Neil_ hadn’t stopped running.

He tried to be more random after coming across Kevin, to risk going back into the mortal world (it was even worse than he remembered it, the air so thick with the taste of metal and chemicals that he could hardly breathe and everything so _strange_ ), but everywhere he turned, there were Fae. There were his father’s people, there were Moriyama’s people, there were strangers he didn’t even know. He used the Dark Road to run everywhere – Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Canada, anywhere there were knowes and it was always the same. Everywhere there was someone hunting him.

The shadow wolves fed well on the Dark Road, but Neil grew more and more exhausted, his right wrist a constant ache from the silver bracelet warning him of danger, his mind tired from casting spells and creating charms and setting up jinxes in an effort of finding some peace.

It was in hopes of finally gaining the latter that he went out to steal some obsidian and turquoise from a store around Nevada with the thought that it was far enough away from his father’s and Tetsuji’s stronghold that he should be able to escape their notice. He’d sneak in at night, take enough of the semi-precious stones and return to the Dark Road to close off the portals to keep people from using them to teleport onto the Dark Road that way. His mother had told him that portals were the most common method of transportation, followed by teleportation spells, and that people with their abilities were rare. If he could make the Dark Road more difficult to access, then there would be no need for him to return to any knowes or the mortal world.

He had about half of what he needed before the bracelet clamped down on his wrist, but before he could step back onto the Dark Road something slammed into him, a burst of stars in his vision and then-

-then he woke up in pain, woke up to burning around his wrists and an awful thirst, a throbbing in his head and his body stiff and sore. He had to blink his head several times in an attempt to make his eyes focus, and at first all he saw was black. It took him a moment to realize the floor he rested upon was gleaming black marble.

“Awake at last, Nathaniel?”

Neil stiffened at the sound of that voice, oddly familiar for some reason. His body protested the sudden movement and his wrists hurt even more – he moaned when he realized that they were bound in iron cuffs. There was dried blood on his right hand and forearm, the limb aching more than the left for some reason, which he didn’t think had to do with the fact that the iron cuff was bigger than the left.

There was the sound of footsteps approaching which made him scramble to sit up, but before he could manage to do that, someone grabbed him by his hair and yanked him more or less into a sitting position. He yelped as he looked at a young man who was vaguely familiar… Riko, he realized with dawning horror when he recognized the slight scar on his left cheek, a small line gained from sword practice when the Tengu had been a child, a scar he bore with pride.

“We couldn’t get the bracelet off,” Riko said with a slight smile, his tone pleasant as if he was telling a story. “It couldn’t be cut off or removed by a spell, so we had to put the cuff over it. Tell me, Nathaniel, where have you been all this time? Where did you go that you haven’t aged in decades, where you’ve changed so much?”

Someone else was moving around them, a dark shape with light footsteps, but Neil could only look at Riko because of the hold on his head, could take in the dark eyes and cruel expression. “I… I don’t….” What did he mean, his looks and his age? “Why?” Why had Riko sought him out?

Riko smiled a little and then smacked Neil across the face with his free hand, hard enough to split Neil’s lip and knock his head aside. “ _I_ ask the questions. Almost twenty years we’ve been searching for you, only to find you looking like this. I want to know what happened.”

Neil gathered all the bile and blood in his mouth and spat it in the bastard’s face, and managed a weak laugh before he was hit again hard enough to be knocked to the floor, strands of hair ripped free in the process. “Fu-fuck off,” he told Riko as he lay sprawled out, the black marble cool against his battered face. “Bastard.”

“It was the Dark Road, wasn’t it?”

Neil tensed at the sound of Tetsuji’s voice, as deep and emotionless as he’d remembered and which forestalled another blow from Riko. The footsteps approached and he bit back on a cry when something tipped with iron hit his back. “You’ve been hiding on the Dark Road.”

He closed his eyes and didn’t say anything.

“That’s not possible,” Riko argued. “He had to go hide with his uncle or something, you know-“

“I _know_ what I’m seeing before me,” Tetsuji said with a rare bit of heat, and Neil would be amused at the sound of feet scuffling as if to scurry away if he wasn’t bound in iron at the Moriyamas’ mercy. “I _know_ the legends, how do you think Kayleigh and I managed to find the knowes? And there’s only one _explanation_ for a Fae to look like he does, like the King and Queens.” Neil hissed as the thing with iron – it turned out to be the end of Tetsuji’s walking cane – was used to tip his chin up and make him look at the bastard – unlike Riko, Tetsuji hadn’t changed at all over the years. “Or more precisely, like _Maeb_ , yes?” Tetsuji’s dark eyes narrowed as he studied Neil. “Yes, you’re of pure blood descended from her on both sides. Somehow you were of just the right mix for the Dark Road to accept you, for it to not kill you when you broke the rules.”

Despite the pain, despite the fact that he was bound at the bastards’ feet, Neil bared his teeth. “You’re… delush’nal.”

Tetsuji arched a thick eyebrow at that but otherwise showed no emotion while Riko smiled in twisted delight. “No, I think not.” He moved the cane to brush it against Neil’s left ear, which made Neil do his best muffle a whimper of pain. “You haven’t seen yourself, have you? No mirrors in the Dark Road, I imagine. One look and you’d know the truth.”

“Let me go,” Neil grated out through clenched teeth, confused as to why they were so focused on his appearance. “You have… no reason for-“ He cried out as the cane came down on his back once again.

“Yes, Claire told us that you seemed ignorant of your responsibilities,” Tetsuji remarked, then he hit Neil again and knocked him back onto the floor. “Most likely your mother’s fault, not that it spares you anything, especially now that I’ve seen you. You're aware that your father is sworn to my family, but did you know that you're sworn to me as well?” When Neil groaned in both pain and denial of that statement, Tetsuji hit him again. “You were brought here as a child for me to determine your worth, to prove your abilities with magic and weapons. The moment your inherited talents awakened, you were to be handed over to me to be used as I saw fit. Unfortunately, your mother decided to interfere.” He hit Neil hard enough that he broke a rib. “So many years she’s wasted.”

As Neil lay panting on the floor, body wracked with pain and mind screaming at him to get up, to find shadows so he could flee, to do _something_ , Tetsuji stepped back. “Break him,” he told Riko. “I need him biddable so that his magic is ours, along with everything he knows about the Dark Road.”

“Yes, sir.” Riko sounded like a young child who had been given the one toy he’d craved for years, and was reaching for Neil before his uncle had even left the room.

Neil groaned as his hair was tugged on once again, fire flaring along his left side where the broken rib grated at the movement. “Fu-ah!” He bit his lip when Riko twisted his right ear.

“I thought you were dead, you know,” Riko murmured as he let up on Neil’s ear. “Thought your father had gotten to you and chopped you up, or you’d killed yourself rather than let him take you. Then we heard about you helping that Foxhole whore.” He smiled, his expression pleased as he once again twisted Neil’s ear. “I remember how stubborn you were as a child, how you never gave up until you learned a spell or a sword movement. And now your _mine_ , Nathaniel.”

Neil almost corrected the bastard, almost told him that wasn’t his name anymore, but the less Riko knew, the better. He tried to spit in the bastard’s face again, but Riko pulled out a knife and dragged it down Neil’s chest while dragging him onto his feet. “Go to he-aw!”

“Soon enough you’ll on your knees before me and calling me ‘lord’,” Riko swore. “Now come along, I have a new home for you.”

That ‘home’ turned out to be a cell where he was chained to a wall and where Riko spent an endless amount of time adding to the scars on Neil’s body, where he would dig in with knives both silver and iron. He had a young Leannan Sidhe with black hair and pale skin who skulked around in the background, his face blank but grey eyes filled with guilt as he assisted Riko by holding Neil’s legs down or wiped him clean or did whatever else Riko ordered. Once Riko left, he would often murmur to Neil in French, a language Neil knew from his time on the run with his mother, while he tended to Neil and the cell.

“ _It would be best if you just give in_ ,” Jean, the young Fae, urged him. “ _The pain will end that way_.”

Neil could only produce a broken laugh and shake his head; he had too much of his mother in him to ‘give in’.

At some point Riko and Jean realized that Neil wasn’t touching the food they left him; it tasted… it tasted odd. It wasn’t right, it tasted bland as if it was lacking something or was off somehow. Soon enough Jean was given the unpleasant task of forcing Neil to eat, and even if he managed to keep it down with all of the pain and iron around him… he grew weaker and weaker with each passing day.

Riko was convinced that Neil was doing it on purpose, the whole starving thing, but Tetsuji stopped by and then a couple of days later, there were a few fruit from the Dark Road, bruised and growing overripe. Neil felt something inside of him twist at the sight, but he couldn’t stop himself from eating them, not once he smelled them, and he felt better immediately. Felt better even when it became clear that Tetsuji had been right about the Dark Road changing him.

That his mother had been right after all, about those rules. Yet if Neil could only break free of the iron cuffs somehow, he would slip back onto the Dark Road and never come back.

Especially once Riko realized that no matter how much he beat Neil or cut him, Neil wouldn’t break.

That was when he sent the men into Neil’s cell.

*******

It was a quiet ride to Columbia; Andrew noticed the nervous glances his brother and cousin gave him when they stopped for something to eat before going to the club, the looks they exchanged with each other in the back of the Maserati and how quick they were to snatch up the drinks and all but run out onto the dance floor once the shots were finished. Kevin, coward Kevin, held a double shot of vodka in his left hand and stared down into its content. "We can-"

"No," Andrew said, his tone final. "We're not talking about it tonight." Tonight or tomorrow or... oh, for a year or two. Perhaps not for another couple decades. How much longer did he have left on his hundred years? Andrew's jaw clenched and his lips twitched a little higher as he mentally cursed the SEC, then had to force his thoughts away from those meddling, sadistic pricks when a spirit knocked over a chair.

Kevin flinched at that and quickly tossed back the drink while Andrew did the same. "We'll figure something out," Kevin said, his voice rough and eyes averted as he set the glass down and grabbed another.

"I told you not to talk about it," Andrew warned, and after that the coward began to drink in earnest. Now _that_ was something Andrew didn't have a problem with, so he stopped fighting the grin itching to spread across his face and joined in.

Kevin didn't appear to want to join the others on the dance floor that night (aw, was he babysitting Andrew? How _revolting_ ), so he was with Andrew when it was time to head back to the bar for another round of drinks. Andrew set down the tray filled with empty glasses down on the bar and waited for Roland to come over to serve them while the spirits acted as a buffer to keep everyone away from him and Kevin; while the club was technically a 'safe haven' - the parking lot aside - and the Moriyamas had learned that a drunk Andrew didn't mean a negligent Andrew, there wasn't any sense in taking risks.

"Hey, back for more?" Roland asked as he came over, as always a teasing smile on his face and dressed in a tight fitting black t-shirt. He arched an eyebrow at Andrew who was quick to give a curt shake of his head - it was a bad night, so no ducking away into the one storeroom. Not when he couldn't trust himself, couldn't say what his temper would be like and so wouldn't risk his hands on another person. Wouldn't risk allowing another person's hands on him. "That was quick," Roland continued with a slight shrug to show that he wasn't offended. "Guess you heard the news, then, right? You tend to keep up on anything Moriyama related." He snuck a glance over at Kevin, who was wavering a little already from the effects of the drinks.

Hearing that word, that _name_ , made Kevin scurry to straighten up, so much so that he nearly toppled over before he regained control of his body, while Andrew was torn between sneering and snarling - ah, one had to appreciate magically altered emotions, yes they did. Well, not really, but since he couldn't kill the bastards responsible for things at the moment, he'd go for - _focus._   Moriyamas. More bastards he was going to kill one day. Priorities, yes. Lovely things. "What about them, hmm?" he asked Roland as he leaned with his folded arms on the bar counter. "Wymack has been mean and kept us busy lately." It paid for their drinks, but so annoying, all that work shit.

Roland shot a slight frown Kevin's way while he continued to pour their drinks. "Just that they finally caught the one shadow walker, the kid who could break into knowes." Andrew had a flash of huge brown eyes and tangled brown curls just then, of disappointment over having his fun cut short and aggravation at having Abby being in a snit for much too long.

"Good," he scoffed as he snatched at one of the drinks and raised it up as if in a toast. "Here's to the pain in the ass." He'd put up with Abby's foul mood for no good reason, with Wymack yelling at him about 'this is why we can't have nice things, you keep scaring them away' and the rest of the Foxes being even more obnoxious than usual after Stardown.

"Wait, you said the Moriyamas." Kevin leaned in as well, but not to snatch up a drink, which was out of character. Andrew frowned at him, at the anxious look on his friend's face. "You mean that the _Moriyamas_ caught him?"

Roland nodded, his expression unusually solemn. "Yes, which to be honest..." He paused to glance around and leaned in closer to them. "People aren't happy about that. Not when you think about the kid's ability. But there's nothing anyone can do, since the kid's a Wesninski." For some reason that name made Kevin moan and slump against the bar as if his knees had just given out.

"No." Kevin's face drained of blood as he shook his head. "Nathaniel? He's _Nathaniel_?"

Now Roland appeared a bit freaked out and handed Kevin a shot. "Yeah, Nathaniel Wesninski." He glanced at Andrew as if to ask what the hell was going on while Kevin tossed back the vodka as if it was some type of elixir, while Andrew shook his head in confusion; he knew 'Wesninski' because that was the name of the Moriyamas' right hand man, was more like a curse among the Fae. But Andrew had never heard of a 'Nathaniel Wesninski'.

"Well, appreciate the gossip, nice to know those bastards found someone else to deal with for the time being." Andrew tapped on the tray in a clear sign that he was waiting for the rest of their drinks. "Maybe I'll be able to take a vacation or something."

"Maybe." Roland gave him a weak smile while he finished their order, and Andrew noticed how Kevin stumbled along as if still stunned when they returned to their table.

He gave the coward a minute and a couple of shots before he pulled the drinks closer to himself and spoke up. "I think you have a story to tell, yes?" His smile took on a sharp edge. "Who's Nathaniel, and why didn't you recognize him back in the warehouse?"

Kevin made a low whining sound as he rubbed at his face, for a moment his fingers lingering on the faint scars on his left cheek. "Because... because of the glamour he was wearing, and because I thought he was dead." He gave Andrew a bleak look for a moment before he cast a longing gaze at the drinks. " _Everyone_ thought he was dead, he's been missing for decades, almost a century in fact. He's Nathan's son, just a couple years younger than me and- and Riko." His scarred left hand clenched into a fist for a moment and he shook his head. "His father would bring him to Evermore when he was a child and he'd... well, no, it wasn't really playing, when I look back at it." For a moment a sad smile came over his face, only to fade into pure sadness. "He was so good at curses and jinxes, enough so it made Riko mad, and was so fast that despite being smaller than us, he could hold his own with fighting. His mother was a shadow walker so everyone figured that he'd take after her." He finally looked back at Andrew. "Then one day he vanished, and it wasn't until years later I learned that Nathan was going to give him to Tetsuji, once his talent emerged. That Tetsuji wanted a shadow walker loyal to just him, and that was going to be Nathaniel."

Kevin had told Andrew about Jean Moreau, the Leannan Sidhe back at Evermore, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to hear about Tetsuji's plan for Nathaniel... but something inside of him twisted to think about a parent just handing over their child like that, to treat them like a possession, enough that one of the spirits picked up an empty glass and threw it across the table. Kevin yelped in surprise as did a Bean Sidhe who nearly got hit by it, but one look in Andrew's direction made the woman turn back around.

"So what, he merely disappeared?" Andrew asked. "Vanished into thin air?" He frowned as he remembered something. "He looked younger than you, back at the warehouse." Kevin appeared to be around twenty years old, much like Andrew did, which was a common 'pausing' point for Fae, depending on how strong their magic was or their bloodline. "Just how much younger is he than you?"

"Close enough that it shouldn't matter, unless the glamour was that strong." Kevin's brows drew together as if he was thinking about something. "He looked much the same, except for his coloring. I should have recognized him, except I didn't think he could still be alive. All the spells Riko and I used to find him stopped working decades ago."

"Obviously he didn’t die," Andrew pointed out while he picked up a glass of whiskey.

"No." Kevin once more took to staring at the tray, so Andrew pushed it back since he'd been obliging with the information. "And now the Moriyamas have him." He shuddered as he snatched up a shot. "They have someone who can do the impossible, can enter a knowe at will, and they'll... they'll break him until he obeys." He cradled his left hand against his chest while he threw back the alcohol.

Andrew sneered as he lit a cigarette. "What about it? Do you feel like storming Evermore to get him out of there?" When Kevin's knees nearly buckled again, Andrew huffed out a cloud of smoke. "I didn't think so."

"It's just... if only I'd recognized him," Kevin mumbled. "Back in the warehouse."

"'Ifs' don't do anyone any good," Andrew spat. 'If' only Tilda hadn't given Andrew away. 'If' only Drake had just joined the Marines instead of coming back to Cass's house. 'If' only Aaron could open his eyes and stop being a sullen little shit. 'If' only Nicky hadn't gone out into the parking lot alone that night. If, If, If... it didn't change anything, did it?

Dammit, now Abby was really going to be pissed off with him over the whole 'Neil' thing, once she found out, he thought as he picked up another drink. It wasn't his fault that the kid had rabbited out of the warehouse without listening to Wymack's shit about 'we're not going to hurt you, just give us a chance and we'll take you home to live with a bunch of other rejects'.

It wasn't Andrew’s fault.

He didn't believe in guilt, didn't believe in something so useless and a waste of time. It didn't do him any good, not when he couldn't change the past, not when he suspected Neil or Nathaniel would have run anyway. Not when it sounded as if the Moriyamas had been after the kid for a long time.

Still, he had a feeling that Neil wasn't very happy at the moment.

Well, welcome to the club, he thought as the whiskey burned down his throat and he did his best to push all thoughts of the shadow walker out of his mind.

*******

“ _So stubborn. Why can’t you… so damn stubborn_ ,” Jean murmured in French as he tended to Neil’s wounds; due to the iron they healed slow – no, they healed _normal_ , as if Neil was mortal, which meant that he was in constant agony due to the cuts and hits and- he didn’t want to think about it all.

He didn’t want to think about anything at all.

Which was why he managed a hint of a smile at Jean’s usual weak tirade, at something semi-normal in the nightmare that had become his life, at the gruff treatment he received from the Leannan Sidhe. Jean may chide him and call him all types of a fool, could be a little more gentle when he picked Neil up off of the floor and cleaned him up, but he was the closest thing Neil had to an ally in Evermore, was the closest thing he had to anyone in the knowe giving a damn about him other than something to be used and broken.

Jean cleaned him and tended to his wounds, stitched them closed and kept them from being infected. Rubbed salve on the burns from iron and… other things, on the bites and scratches and tears. Clothed him when he was left naked and gave him clean blankets since- gave him clean blankets and replaced the torn and stained clothes. Made him eat and drink, though Neil had long ago decided that falling unconscious and never waking up wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Only the thought that his mother had never given up, had refused to be weak even at the very end kept him from swearing to Tetsuji and Riko, from taking back his old name and becoming one of the Moriyama’s vassals. They would kill him before he broke.

He was looking forward to that day.

“ _You are such a fool_ ,” Jean continued, the words so familiar that Neil could almost anticipate what he would say next. Jean frowned as he finished the stitches in Neil’s left side, where Riko had carved around his bruised ribs, then sighed. “ _He’s going to kill you one of these days_.”

“ _That’s the idea_ ,” Neil mumbled, then winced when Jean pulled him upright enough to slide on a new shirt – why the man bothered when it would just be ruined soon enough, Neil didn’t understand. Perhaps because it upset Jean to come into the room and find him… well, it upset Jean, so Neil put up with it because after everything, he didn’t like upsetting Jean. Anyone else in the knowe he would gladly carve out their hearts and spit into the bloody cavern, would unleash his father’s talent on them without a second thought, but not Jean.

Not the young man who bore similar scars, who too often came in bearing his own set of bruises, who was also a Moriyama possession. Who had tried to tell Neil how to make the ‘visits’ stop; if Neil was a bit less stubborn, a bit less prideful, maybe he could do it, could just give in, but he was his mother’s son, after all. That and he had a feeling it wouldn’t do him any good, not as long as he refused to swear to Tetsuji.

“ _A damn fool_ ,” Jean cursed and, after glancing at the door to Neil’s cell, risked cupping Neil’s bruised face between his hands. “ _Listen to me for once, will you_?” He waited until Neil looked at him before he spoke again. “ _Tetsuji is about to send for your father_.” His grey eyes, so expressive even though the rest of his face always remained impassive, grew shadowed when Neil stiffened at the news. “ _He’s unhappy that Riko hasn’t broken you yet and feels that the Butcher might do better_.”

At first Neil felt a spike of terror upon hearing the news… and then he managed a weak laugh. “ _What can my father do to me that Riko hasn’t already_?” Carve him to pieces with silver and iron? Make his skin crawl whenever anyone touched him, even Jean? Strip away every bit of dignity from him? “ _All that’s left is chopping me to pieces, and how can I shadow walk for them then, hmm_? _So what **else** can they do_?”

Jean’s grey eyes, which reminded Neil so much of the skies of the Dark Road, grew even more haunted. “ _Never ask that question, little fox_.” While Neil huffed at the nickname the Leannan Sidhe had given him, supposedly because of his eyes and hair, Jean shook his head. “ _They always find new ways_.” Then he leaned in to give Neil’s forehead a brief kiss before standing up.

Stunned by that action, by Jean touching him like that, Neil stared at the man in surprise while Jean grabbed the chains and refastened them to the iron cuffs around his wrists. “ _Good night_ ,” Jean bid him before gathering up his healing supplies then leaving.

Neil huddled on the nest of blankets tucked against the wall and watched him leave, his body aching and mind whirling over what Jean had done and said, about the possibilities of seeing his father in the near future. In the end he pushed the fear aside because it was as he’d told Jean, there wasn’t much more the man could do to him – not if Tetsuji wanted Neil to remain of any use to him.

Most likely his father would kill him, just like he’d killed Neil’s mother. As much as Neil hated the fact that the bastard would win out in the end… he was so tired just then, so tired of fighting and all of the pain.

Maybe death would be like the Dark Road – maybe that was why everyone feared the place so much. That would be nice, if it was true.

Stunned by the morbid turn his thoughts had taken, Neil shook his head and reminded himself that he was of too much value to the Moriyamas for them to allow his father to kill him. No, it would just be more torture, most likely. He reached beneath his shirt to feel the still aching cuts on his side and back, cuts put there by Riko, and managed another weak laugh. Soon enough he’d be nothing but scar tissue and spite; one of the few places left untouched by Riko’s blades was his face, was the place he wouldn’t _mind_ being scarred because of how much he resembled his father.

His right hand fell onto his lap, dragged down by the weight of the chains and wrist aching from the constant burn of iron. As he stared at it, he could feel the press of the silver bracelet beneath it, the piece he’d found on the Dark Road. There had been a time or two, such as when Riko had carved into his upper back, when Tetsuji had questioned him about the item and anything else he’d discovered while on the Dark Road, but Neil hadn’t told the Tengu anything. Tetsuji hadn’t been pleased about that and tried some coercion spells on him, but despite the iron, Neil still hadn’t talked.

None of the spells that Tetsuji or Riko tried on him worked, in fact. Neil would be happy about that, except those failures only led to more pain for him in the end.

He was _so_ tired of the pain.

Perhaps when he was dead, the bracelet could finally be removed. It would be nice if it could go to Jean… but no, Tetsuji and Riko were too greedy to let something of value out of their hands, the bastards. Why did-

Neil blinked as there was a sudden pressure around his right wrist, beneath the iron cuff. It seemed to tighten and loosen a couple of times, and then he yelped as it felt as if tiny knives or teeth bit into the over-sensitive flesh all around his right wrist. Thin streams of blood flowed out of the edges of the cuff as he hunched over his arm, as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

His arm _hurt_ , the teeth seeming to grow, to _spread_ , to climb up and down his forearm slowly yet surely. He grit his teeth together in an attempt to not make a noise, and was so focused on whatever the hell was happening (was it some new torture Riko had come up with?) that he didn’t hear anyone approach his cell until the door was open.

“Isn’t it so nice when he’s all cleaned up for us?”

Neil jerked his head up to see Matsuo and Tobias close the door behind them, dressed in black and red but without their swords so they must have completed their duties for the day. The Kitsune and Tylwyth Teg had similar looks of anticipation on their faces as they approached, Matsuo already tugging at the laces of his tunic and Tobias undoing his sword belt, which held a knife and pouch.

“Looks like Riko was a little rough with him earlier.” Tobias dropped his belt near Neil then reached out as if to touch Neil’s face, and grinned when Neil flinched from the touch. “Aw, still being a skittish kitty? After how _well_ we know each other?”

“That’s why he’s much more fun than Jean,” Matsuo commented while he pulled off his tunic. “More spirit.” Then he laughed, his green eyes narrowed in cruel amusement as he combed his fingers through his disheveled black hair. “That and we can be as rough as _we_ want with him.”

“Fuck off,” Neil spat even as he pushed back as far against the wall as he could, then hissed as more pain crawled up his right arm. “Fuck off and die, you pathetic pricks.” If only he had his magic and could curse them, could make their hearts seize up or blood boil or – just _anything_.

“Time to put that mouth to better use, kitty cat,” Tobias said as he reached for Neil again. Knowing it was useless but refusing to go down without a fight, Neil rolled to the side as far as his chains allowed despite his numerous injuries, and cursed when the bastard used the lengths of steel to pull him back. He got a kick in for Tobias’ trouble, only to be punched in the stomach and felt some of Jean’s new stitches split open and his bruised ribs protest from the blow – from that and him continuing to fight back, to struggle.

All the while his right arm continued to burn, to bleed.

“This is just going to make it worse,” the Tylwyth Teg told him, while Matsuo laughed and held down his legs. Neil’s hair was grabbed and his head slammed against the stone wall, and at first he thought it was the ringing in his ears, the dizziness, that made him hear the ‘clicking’ sound. That made the burn on his right arm fade away as the biting, stinging pain finally stopped.

“We’re going to be extra rough tonight,” Tobias snarled as he yanked at Neil’s now bloody shirt. “Jean won’t know where to start to put you back together, you shitty freak.”

Neil’s body jerked away from the wall as the front of his shirt was torn, and he felt something move in his loose right sleeve. Something heavy. He glanced down while Matsuo urged Tobias on to remove his clothes… and saw the now open iron cuff slide onto the floor.

The iron cuff which had been on his wrist for however long he’d been trapped at Evermore.

Now something gleaming silver was on his arm, something that stretched from the top of his right hand to what felt to be nearly his elbow – the bracelet. Somehow, despite him being bound in iron, it had transformed and broken the iron cuff.

“Are you listening to me?” Tobias lashed out with his hand at Neil’s face as if to slap him, but Neil gathered the vestiges of his strength and swung his now gauntleted right arm at the bastard’s head and knocked him aside. While Matsuo watched on in stunned amazement, Neil grabbed at Tobias’ discarded belt and yanked the knife free.

“Leave me the fuck alone!” he cried out, well aware of how the guards stationed nearby never paid any attention to his screams whenever there was someone in the cell with him, and managed to drown out the Kitsune’s yell for help as he drove the knife into the Fae’s throat. “Stop it!” he shouted as he dragged the knife through flesh and tendons, finding strength in long-bottled up rage and desperation. “Stop it, dammit!”

As Matsuo toppled over and bled out, Neil panted for a few seconds, body trembling with shock and adrenalin, and then he forced himself to move, to keep going despite the pain and growing weakness. He dropped the bloody knife and grabbed the clean one from Matsuo’s belt after wiping as much blood as he could on the man’s pants, then used the knife to pick open the remaining iron cuff. He ended up cutting up his left arm a good bit in the process because of the knife slipping, but the pain was worth it to finally be free.

Free.

His left arm bleeding and flesh swollen from the cuff, he went over to Tobias and knelt by the groggy Fae. All it took was a small scratch and his talent rushed to the fore, eager for a death, for something to restore all of his magic stolen by the iron. Neil felt dizzy from the sudden rush of it, from the feel of having magic once more after so long, and had to force it into allowing him to slip away from Evermore before it was wasted on something like healing.

Healing could wait, escape was more important just then. The _most_ important thing just then.

He felt like crying when he stepped out onto the Dark Road, when the grey world formed around him. His legs crumbled and he fell down, so grateful and relieved just then to be somewhere safe, somewhere away from the Moriyamas and pain and _people_. From being touched and- he was _safe_.

At first he just lay there while he seemed to fade in and out of darkness, his thoughts scattered from all the pain, then he forced himself to get up and move, to stagger forward as much as he could in case the Moriyamas sent anyone after him. He fell and crawled as much as he managed to walk, but he put a bit of distance behind him. It was when he almost reached a creek when the pack caught up to him.

They were heralded by loud, excited yips, and despite all of the misery he was in and the dizziness he felt from the blows and the weakness and probably the blood loss, he smiled when they arrived. Nuit knocked him over at first, then gently bit into his bloody shirt to pull him up onto his knees. “Yes, I missed you,” he murmured when the wolf licked his sore face.

He rested against Ombré while the pack pressed against him, comforted by their presence and warmth, content to do nothing but enjoy the moment for as long as he could. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible when he felt blood continue to trickle down his side and arm, and let out a weary sigh.

“I need… I need some things,” he admitted to the wolves as much as to himself. “Herbs and bandages and… I need to go back.” He cringed as he spoke since the last thing he wanted to do was leave the Dark Road after finally getting back to it, but he wasn’t sure how long he could hold out with everything that had been done to him without supplies unless he managed to drain another Fae. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure he could do something like that again in his current state, as he’d largely managed to take out the two in Evermore due to the advantage of surprise and outrageous luck.

Somehow, he didn’t think those things would continue to hold out much longer.

When Ombré whined and laid down in front of him as it to keep him in place, Neil smiled and rubbed at her ears with his trembling right hand. “I know, but I’ll be quick.” He didn’t have the energy to be gone too long, after all. “One place, I’ll just grab what I need and I’ll be back.” The stones to block the portals could wait another time – if at all.

He’d risk a trip to the one knowe where that healer had been from, the Foxhole Court, since it was supposed to be small and unaffiliated. It should have the things he needed if it had a healer, and then he could retreat back to the Dark Road to hopefully never leave it again.

He was done with the Fae, with the mortal world and dealing with everything but the Dark Road and the pack. Perhaps he’d been foolish to ignore his mother’s warnings about certain things, but she’d been wrong to not warn him about others, about the truth of why they’d ran, about his father and the Moriyamas. So now he was done with everything but what he had here.

One more trip, that was all, before he turned his back on the Fae forever.

*******

Andrew jolted awake to whispers inside of his head, faint voices chiding him to wake up, to get out of bed. For a moment he was a child again, was small and in a strange room, in a strange bed and waiting for a man he barely knew to come to his door, to-

He summoned his magic to him, the thing that had protected him for so long, that had kept him safe, kept those he cared about safe, and forced out a slow breath as he struggled to calm down, to listen to the spirits. He was in his room at the Foxhole Court, was safe. He wasn't a child anymore, not for decades, and no one touched him unless he wanted. He huffed a little as he sat up, his hands combing through his hair as he thought not even then, as few dared to approach the monster, the necromancer.

There was someone in Abby's lab, the spirit of the little girl told him, one of the oldest spirits around him. A stranger. That snapped him from his potion-induced mental ramblings and got him out of his bed, where he snatched up the iron-tipped oak staff resting against the wall near it.

Well, if he was going to lose some much needed beauty sleep, at least he got to play, how nice. Unwilling to have his fun interrupted by any foolish bleeding hearts, he didn't send the spirits to wake anyone up as he ran quietly through the halls toward Abby's lab, all the while quizzing the spirits about what was going on in the rooms which served as a makeshift hospital for the knowe as well as where Abby made the various potions, elixirs and charms for healing (and otherwise, such as Andrew's happy juice) and storage closet.

The spirits didn't have much to say, which was surprising, except that there was blood and something they didn't like, something that kept them from getting too close. Blood and old magic. Terrible magic.

Andrew wondered if perhaps it wasn't time to encourage the spirits to move on to, well… _wherever_ they went afterwards. Where they should have gone after their bodies had died. He never kept them with him by force, not the ones who were drawn to him, and though he felt something he refused to acknowledge when the ones who had been with him for any amount of time eventually disappeared, he knew it would happen eventually. The little girl with the soft voice and the old man with the Southern drawl had been with him for a couple of decades now, some of the others almost as long, and perhaps that was _too_ long. Maybe tonight was a sign of that, if they couldn't do a simple thing like report on a would-be intruder.

He reached Abby's lab and opened the door leading into the rooms as quietly as possible, then crept inside with his staff held in front of him. There was a faint sound coming from the storage area, the rooms illuminated by the wide windows set along the outer wall. It sounded as if something was dropped, followed by slurred words.

Andrew tried to make the spirits fan out ahead of him, to surround the intruder, but they resisted, unwilling to get any closer to the person. Annoyed at their disobedience, he clicked his tongue before he drew some energy up from the earth and then charged forward.

He caught sight of huge, pale blue eyes with odd black pupils and a riot of auburn curls, of sharply pointed and elongated ears and lightly tanned skin littered with bruises right before he swung the staff down with all of his strength. It looked as if the intruder had just started to fade out when the one iron-tipped end smashed into him, which caused him to let out a pained cry before he crashed into the wall in front of him then crumpled onto the floor.

Andrew stood with his staff held in his hands ready to deliver another blow and breath coming out in fast pants, adrenalin racing through him and a twisted grin on his face while the spirits raced through Abby's lab tearing at the various herbs and flowers she had growing in pots. He allowed them their mayhem while he used the staff to prod at the intruder, to roll him onto his side for a better view- and then cursed out loud.

Lying in bloodstained clothes around dropped bandages and other healing supplies was a fucked up version of the kid from Stardown's warehouse, was Neil. Nathaniel Wesninski. Whatever the hell the kid was called, he was bleeding all over Abby's floor while looking like something that had walked out of those precious books of Kevin’s which the coward didn't let anyone touch (so of course Andrew did just that).

Dammit, Andrew should have stayed in bed.

Having a feeling that he was going to regret it, he squatted down in front of the unconscious Fae while he sent off a couple of spirits to wake up Abby, Renee and Bee.

******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> And there we have it, the second chapter. I went back and forth on what all happened to Neil at Evermore, but when going over the extra content again, when thinking of Neil being a true Moriyama possession and and a Fae one at that... I just couldn't see Riko treating him any different than Jean, especially if Neil was as defiant and stubborn as Jean was upon first arrival (which is why I think my Raven!Neil plotbunny just sits, because it would be so dark).
> 
> And it's starting to come together now, what all happened to Neil, being on the Dark Road for so long! You'll get a better picture of him next chapter, I promise.
> 
> And Andrew! Yes, the parallel of him this chapter being a lot like Neil last chapter was intentional (the drugs/growing apathy vs Neil's timeless/Dark Road). Now both of them are going to be given a hard snap back into 'reality',
> 
> I debated so much having Wymack say 'this is why we can't have nice things' in the warehouse, but it just didn't work right there.
> 
> It may seem like Neil is the sparkly special one (the physical changes, the bracelet/gauntlet) in the story, but nope, he's not. Or at least, he's not the only one.... He's just the idiot who didn't listen to his mother.
> 
> Hmm, April and May are going to be SO BUSY (but I'll be at Acen!), but at the least I should be wrapping up The First Breath soon. So then I can focus on this (and try not to get swallowed by any new fics) and some Dragon!Andrew. And a few prompts. But TFB on Sundays and the next Wednesday post (whenever that will be) might be Dragon!Andrew.
> 
> As always, the comments and kudos are appreciated!  
> *******


	3. Help part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, so another chapter! I had thought that more would happen during it, there's a lot that I'm trying to get through (so MUCH SETUP), hence the 'part one' and 'part two'.
> 
> Warnings... hmm, there's stuff alluded to, if you got through the last chapter you know what they are, nothing explicit again at all.
> 
> *******

*******

Andrew sat perched on one of the tables in Abby’s lab, his staff within reach as he smoked a cigarette and watched Abby, Bee and Renee fuss over the unconscious intruder (he refused to allow Aaron to be woken up to help, not when he didn’t know why this ‘Neil’ had broken into the knowe).

“Oberon’s balls, did you have to hit him so hard?” Wymack asked for the seventh time as he paced back and forth, dressed in a worn dark brown tunic and what looked to be an old pair of faded blue sweat pants.

“He _broke_ into the knowe,” Andrew repeated for the fifth time while the spirits whirled around him, still uncomfortable about going anywhere near the kid. “I wasn’t aware that we treated thieves and intruders kindly.” Not people who could break into the fucking _knowes,_ which was supposed to be _impossible_.

Wymack gave him a frazzled look but didn’t say anything, while behind them Abby seemed hard-pressed to heal all the damage that had been hidden beneath ‘Neil’s’ – no, Nathaniel, he was Nathaniel Wesninski’s clothes. “I need more of the tincture for his wounds, there’s just so _many_ ,” she told Bee as she fussed with something on his chest. “Is there any sign of infection?” she asked Renee.

The naiad paused for a moment with her hand on Nathaniel’s exposed upper chest. “I’m not sensing anything,” Renee said in a quiet voice, yet Andrew picked up a slight roughness which it usually didn’t possess, a slight spark of light in her dark eyes as she looked down on the unconscious form laid out in the bed before her. Hmm, was someone upset about all of the old scars and fresh stitches on poor Nathaniel’s upper body? Andrew had to admit that the sight managed to cut through the drug haze in his mind, to stir a slight appalled interest in even him. To make him wonder what the hell Nathaniel had gone through the last several decades to have those myriad marks engraved on his skin… and then his attention skittered on to something else, such as those pointed ears and those freakish eyes and the spirits’ reaction, to the fact that _Nathaniel_ had dared to break into _Andrew’_ s knowe.

The bastard shouldn’t be there, plain and simple. Best to patch him up and kick him out before he brought trouble to the Foxhole Court.

“This isn’t good, someone tending to him like that,” Bee murmured as she stroked her fingers through the unconscious idiot’s tangled curls. “To establish a pattern of repeated harm and mending for the purpose of doing more harm is extremely disturbing.”

Andrew scoffed from his position on the table. “Have you listened to Kevin at all? That’s the Moriyamas for you, at least for those people who aren’t that important to them.” Kevin had ranked high enough that _he_ couldn’t be damaged too much – at least physically – but he’d told enough horror stories about Moreau and a few other vassals that Bee should have known better.

She cast Andrew a considering look while Abby and Renee rolled Nathaniel onto his side so they could check out his back for damage or something – maybe they were tired of looking at his freakish face. “What?” Andrew asked Bee after he blew out a plume of smoke. “I’m not the one carving up the people stupid enough to swear to me.”

“It’s called ‘empathy’, Andrew,” Bee said, her tone weary as if she needed some sleep. Oh, wait, she _had_ been pulled from bed because of an inconsiderate shadow walker, hadn’t she? Maybe she should appreciate Andrew for smacking him upside the head, then. “Perhaps you could-“

“Oh! Oh my,” Abby gasped as she stared down at something, her expression one of horror, and hearing Wymack curse about certain body parts of Oberon and Titania made Andrew sigh in annoyance as he hopped off of the table so he could take a better look at the idiot sprawled out on the bed.

At first it looked like a mess of scar tissue, which wasn’t that surprising. There appeared to be some shiny skin from a burn and a bunch of slashes from knives… and then Andrew realized that the cuts were too red, were too raised and prominent for them to be anything but wounds left by an iron blade. That they were too deliberate in their placing, that the pattern was of a stylized bird in flight, the lines meant to represent feathers spread out of wings. The slashes cut across old, silvery scars, of what looked like might be a rune or two carved deep into Nathaniel’s back and shoulder (and from what Andrew had been told, that _had_ to have hurt), and spread across his shoulders and upper back.

Iron cuts to break old blood magic.

Trust the Moriyamas to use pain and iron and scars to drive a point home, to ‘cripple’ someone and deprive them of a useful defense while branding them at the same time. Part of Andrew could understand it, while another part of him found it one more reason to loathe the pricks.

He was so caught up on the image of what was meant to be a raven in flight carved into Nathaniel’s back that it took him a moment to realize that there was more than that, to focus on what could only be bite marks half-hidden beneath ragged strands of auburn hair, and a couple of long finger scratches as well. What appeared to be bruises in the shape of hand prints on sharp hipbones peeking out above the waistband of ill-fitting pants.

Marks that shouldn’t be there.

Andrew didn’t realize that he had reacted to the marks until some small vial flew into the wall a few feet away and Abby called out his name. “Andrew! _Andrew_! Quiet down the spirits before you hurt someone!”

“Andrew.” It was Bee’s voice, unusually loud and solemn, which made him look over at the woman as she hunched over Nathaniel’s prone body as if a human shield. “We need you to calm down and to give us some privacy, do you understand.” When the spirits wailed at that comment, she shook her head. “You and Wymack, _back away_.”

“I….” He looked down at the marks still visible on Nathaniel’s body and shuddered. “He-“

“Betsy, ple- could you make sure he stays asleep for this,” Abby asked as she placed the scissors to the waistband of Nathaniel’s pants, her intention clear. “And dammit, Andrew, back off! Give him some privacy,” she ordered, her voice unusually sharp. “You too, David.”

Andrew used the spirits to shove Wymack aside as he moved. “I’m not leaving, not while he’s here.” He didn’t trust Nathaniel, even with the latest revelation. He would track down Kevin later and ask some rather pointed questions, but he didn’t trust the shadow walker an inch, oh no. Not even if – no matter what.

“Betsy?”

“I’m trying, there’s something… ah, there, the spell worked,” Bee told Abby as she moved her hands away from Nathaniel’s head. “I can’t promise that he’ll stay unconscious for long, though.”

“He needs to heal, dammit,” Abby muttered as she cut away the pants; Renee and Bee’s body blocked Andrew from seeing anything, but judging from the women’s expressions, it wasn’t good. Oh yes, he would indeed talk to Kevin later.

“What in the myriad hells’ is going on in Evermore?” Wymack asked before he lit a cigarette of his own with unsteady hands, his voice as gruff as his expression. “First they maim someone and now this?”

Andrew scoffed as he leaned back against one of Abby’s numerous bookshelves, uncaring about the drying herbs he crushed – hmm, from the smell of it, comfrey. “Why do you care? As soon as he wakes up, the little rabbit will be gone.” All it would take was some shadows and bye-bye Nathaniel with the pretty, strange eyes. Nathaniel, Nathaniel, whatever or whomever.

Wymack stared at Andrew as if he was crazy, which wasn’t anything new, but in a situation like _this?_ Oh, Andrew had a bad feeling which he suspected was tied to a certain Fae with too-pointy ears and too blue eyes. “You’re shitting me, right? Have those drugs finally eaten away at your brains or what?”

“Ha, so funny,” Andrew said, his expression as flat as it could be with the ‘happy juice’ in his system. “He’s a runner, and unless you’ve got some iron cuffs around here, running is what he’s going to do,” Andrew pointed out. Which was fine with him, as it was one less problem in his life – that and he had a feeling that ‘Nathaniel’ was best served running as fast and as far as he could get from the Moriyamas.

“He came _here_ because he was hurt,” Wymack snapped as he flung his barely smoked cigarette away. “Then you had to go and hurt him some more!” Andrew didn’t react to the jab because he’d only done what he felt was necessary to protect him and his. “This place is supposed to be a damn sanctuary, you know,” Wymack stated as he resumed pacing back and forth, his lined face twisted into an expression of anger and worry.

The spirits were restless, not only because of Wymack’s agitation but because of Nathaniel’s presence, which didn’t help things any when Andrew was being yelled at for knocking out the bastard. “Some people are lost causes, and he’s one of them. He’s got ‘trouble’ written all over him, just look at him.”

Wymack paused for a moment to give Andrew an incredulous stare. “Funny, because that’s what everyone tells me about _you_.”

Tired and on edge from the spirits’ odd reactions, Andrew gave the old asshole the finger for that comment, then did his best to ignore the whispers from the other side of the room; he could use the spirits to eavesdrop on what the women were doing… except that the spirits didn’t want to get too close to Nathaniel. Like that wasn’t suspicious at all.

He’d taken to messing up the arrangement of various books and vials on Abby’s shelves when the healer finally called out Wymack’s name. “We’re done,” she told him as Wymack and Andrew hurried over to the bed, where a heavily bandaged Nathaniel was tucked beneath a blanket; he’d been cleaned up some, his hair brushed back from his face and forehead wrapped with gauze because of the blow Andrew had landed earlier, and appeared so small and almost fragile. Andrew wasn’t used to seeing anyone around his size who wasn’t part Brownie or Red Cap, and once more puzzled at the sharply pointed, elongated ears; even Kevin’s where that exaggerated, and he was a pureblood. Andrew’s only had the slightest of tips to them, enough that he didn’t have to bother with a glamour when he went outside the knowe.

It seemed that Wymack must be having similar thoughts as he gazed down at the sleeping Fae, his arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. “That’s… I haven’t seen any other Scáth Sidhe look like that, the whole ears and all.” His frown deepened before he reached out to rub Abby on the back, as if to offer her some comfort.

“No, I don’t think this has anything to do with his mother’s bloodline, nor his father’s, though thank Oberon that there’s only one Folús Sidhe,” Bee murmured as she propped her chin up in her right palm.

“One is more than enough,” Abby said as she gave Wymack a grateful smile before she fussed with the blanket folded over Nathaniel’s narrow chest; Andrew noticed that the sleeping Fae had a wide band of silver on his right forearm, something engraved with scrolling, graceful lines. “What do you think, Renee? You rode his blood, right?”

Renee appeared just as tired as Bee, her dark brown eyes heavy-lidded and slender body loose-limbed with exhaustion as she slumped against the wall near the bed. “I couldn’t make much sense out of it, to be honest.” She frowned as she toyed with a strand of her pale hair, her attention focused on their unwanted guest. “Something seemed to be interfering with my talent and blocking me from doing anything that wasn’t related to healing him.”

Andrew remembered that Kevin had problems landing charms on the bastard back in Stardown and started to stalk around the bed. “Did you find any unaltered runes or charms on him?” Did he have any intact magic on him that would pose as a threat?

Bee seemed to pick up on what he was asking and shook her head. “Any runes have been deliberately broken by iron, and there’s nothing left on him now but the gauntlet, which we can’t remove.”

That didn’t sound suspicious, did it? “Are you sure you tried hard enough?” he asked as he slid a knife free, a smile on his face as he stepped forward – only to be blocked by Wymack.

“Dammit, what did I say about that he’ll be safe here! He’s not to be harmed while he’s in the knowe!” the man yelled at Andrew as he shoved him back.

“He broke in-“

Abby interrupted Andrew’s argument with a rare show of anger as she rushed onto her feet. “He came here for bandages and healing herbs, that’s what he was trying to take!” She glared at Andrew while she took a protective position in front of the unconscious shadow walker. “Things I’d gladly give him a hundred times over, considering that he saved my life! _A debt is owed_ , Andrew Joseph Minyard.” He flinched at her using his full name, his true name, like that. “He stays until he is healed at the very least, considering what the Moriyamas have done to him.”

“Considering what the Moriyamas will do to him if they catch him again,” Bee added, always one to go for the weakest point despite her soft appearance and softer voice; one had to love the Leannan Sidhe. Not. Oh, one just _had_ to love Leannan Sidhe who knew most of those wonderful little issues which had prompted your magic to emerge at a young age and helped power it. _Not_. Andrew glared at her while the spirits once more whirled about and tore off various leaves of plants and smashed any remaining vials, but Bee met his gaze with her own calm one. “The fact that he could somehow escape their knowe means that he hasn’t sworn to them yet, which won’t stand for much longer. It’s clear that they’re trying to break him,” now her expression grew troubled as she glanced at Nathaniel, “and it’ll only grow worse for him if they get their hands on him again.”

Andrew sneered at her. “Unless it’s a trap, a trick, which is such a _Fae_ thing to do, isn’t it? A _Moriyama_ thing to do. They sent him here to bring Kevin back ‘home’.”

“Then why send him in such a weak state?” Renee asked from her spot near the bed, seemingly unconcerned about what the spirits were doing or the knife in Andrew’s hand.

“To tug at your pathetic, bleeding little hearts,” Andrew told her while he forced himself and the spirits to calm down. “And such a great job he’s doing.”

Renee raised her head to look at him, and the rest of the insults on Andrew’s tongue melted away at the sight of unexpected darkness in her eyes, at the swirl of pain and fury and cruelty that she normally kept tamped down so far deep that it was the barest tease at the best of times. Oh ho, that was more than a tease just now. “No, even sadists like the Moriyamas know better if that’s their goal. They would have cut him up a little, a few hits, perhaps bruised ribs but not broken. Not such systemic abuse, not something where he could barely stand on his feet from all of the blood loss. You want it to look authentic, but you need the mission to be a success. You need the person to be able to fight.” The darkness intensified when she glanced down at Nathaniel. “And there was no need for him to stop _here_ first, not when he could have gone right to Kevin’s room and been gone without any of us realizing that he was here.”

The anger flared inside of Andrew again when he realized just how easy it was for something like Nathaniel to take Kevin away, for him to harm Aaron. “Then slit his throat right now.” He stepped forward to do just that, but was once more blocked by Wymack. “We can’t trust him!”

“He. _Stays_ ,” Wymack ground out. “Abby’s right, there’s a debt owed there and even if there wasn’t, I’m not going to kick out some poor kid who obviously needs our protection!”

Andrew bared his teeth at the old fool. “That ‘poor kid’ can sneak into any knowe he wants. The Moriyamas are going to be coming after him, along with the rest of the Fae. Don’t be stupid.” He tried to make the spirits obey him, to have them go near Nathaniel, and only one or two of the ‘younger’ ones seemed to be working up their courage to do just that.

Meanwhile, Wymack didn’t look away from Andrew, his expression serious. “It doesn’t matter, he’s still someone in need. I didn’t turn away Kevin, I didn’t back down from the SEC over you, I’m not going to deny this kid help, either.”

“You’re going to regret this,” Andrew warned, right before he scoffed and sheathed the blade. “Not that it matters, because he’s going to run away the moment he wakes up, if he doesn’t slit all of our throats and kidnap Kevin first.”

“I think I have something that’ll help in that regard,” Renee offered, which made Andrew look away from Wymack.

“What, some iron cuffs?”

Abby gasped as she gave Andrew a hurt look. “No! I won’t let you use them on him, he’s been harmed enough by that metal.” She bent over to the bed as if to block Andrew from bringing any iron in the shadow walker’s presence.

“What?” Andrew asked Renee, who seemed busy examining the silver cuff on Nathaniel’s right arm. “What is it, and you better not give me any of your usual ‘peace, love and vomit’ shit or Abby’s going to have another patient tonight.”

“Hmm, no, not quite.” Renee stroked her fingers along the wide band then jerked them back as if she’d just received a shock of some kind, but instead of disturbed her expression was thoughtful. “I can use my magic to set up… oh, think of it as a type of geas, a bond if you will, between….” She cocked her head to the side as she studied Nathaniel. “Ah, with Neil and one of us. It’ll prevent him from being able to use his shadow walking to escape while that other person acts as an anchor, but it’ll only be a temporary link based on the lunar cycle.”

“I don’t know about that, I’m not fond of putting geas on people,” Wymack argued as he took to pacing around the bed again, his attention split between Andrew and Renee.

Abby shook her head. “Neither am I, but it’ll give Nath- ah, Neil a chance to heal.” She once more took to fussing with the blankets, her expression one of heavy concern as she stroked her hand over the Fae’s covered chest. “He can’t resume running in this condition, not if he wants to remain free.”

“Twenty-eight days would give him some time to regain his strength and figure out his next steps,” Bee countered, playing the devil’s advocate as always. “You could offer him sanctuary here but if he turns it down, perhaps find another solution for him. He can’t keep running from the Moriyamas forever.”

“The Moriyamas and the rest of the Fae, Andrew’s right about that.” Wymack stood still as he ran his right hand over his hair as he regarded Nathaniel’s still figure. “Titania’s tits, I don’t like this but it’s better than him dashing off right into the Moriyamas’ hands again, and it’s temporary.” Something dark flashed over his face for a few seconds. “It won’t be the case if he’s caught by anyone else.” His hands fell to his sides as he nodded at Renee. “Who do you need for the second part of the binding? Dan? She can do a bit of teleporting, too, so that’s a magic similar to his.”

Renee shook her head. “No, when I was riding his blood there was something in there that made me think of Andrew. I could pick up that much.”

In the process of retreating to the nearest wall to lean against since he was growing tired, Andrew paused then whirled around. “What?” When he found Renee staring at him intently, he huffed. “ _No_.” He wanted nothing to do with the Fae other than kicking him out or stabbing him.

“But you’re the one most concerned about him,” she pointed out. “This would allow you to keep track of him and ensure that he doesn’t harm anyone,” she said in that too-sweet manner of hers. When Andrew merely gave her as blank a look as he could manage, she stopped smiling and returned it with a level one of her own. “There’s something odd going on with him-“

“Other than the damn ears and his eyes?”

“But I know that it won’t work with anyone else but you,” she continued as if Andrew hadn’t interrupted. “So do you refuse and he slips away only to be caught and tortured some more,” she asked with a harsh edge to her voice, all softness gone from her demeanor, “only for him to finally be broken and then the Moriyamas to have a real weapon to hold against our throats, or do you agree and _this_ _time_ he stays?”

Was someone trying _guilt_ of all things? Andrew would laugh in Renee’s face except he was tired and itching to draw a knife just then – whether to slice it against Nathaniel’s throat or hers, he wasn’t quite sure and oh how rare, such indecisiveness. Decisions, decisions, he thought as he tapped his right foot against the floor and his right fingers against his left armband, as the spirits toppled over even more bottles and books until Abby cursed his name. As much as Renee infuriated him, she did have a valid point (probably several, judging from the one or two knives he’d spotted hidden beneath her boring sweaters and skirts) in that if rabbit Nathaniel wasn’t a Moriyama lackey yet, it was only a matter of time until he was.

So, best to break his secrets out of him sooner rather than later, and if Andrew had to have him anywhere near Aaron and Kevin, than to do it with some sort of leash that _he_ controlled. “Fine, do your thing, puddle girl,” he said as he held out his left hand.

“Are you sure someone _else_ isn’t better suited for this?” Wymack asked as he righted a few books on a nearby bookshelf while he cast Andrew a surly look.

“No, it has to be Andrew,” Renee explained while she slipped a small knife free from where it had been tucked up the sleeve of her pink sweater and, mindful to barely touch Andrew’s left hand, gave the heel of his palm a slight nick to draw some blood. As the red fluid welled up from the cut, she gathered some onto the blade with her power, a small ball of it, then sat down next to ‘Neil’ with an intent look on her face. She cut the unconscious Fae on his left hand as well, and while a drop of his blood hovered in the air, made Andrew’s blood slide into the cut then summoned Nathaniel’s blood onto the blade before leaning toward Andrew once again.

Sighing in annoyance and a bit of disgust, Andrew let her place Nathaniel’s blood inside of his hand, his flesh tingling for a moment as it was absorbed. Then Renee touched them both, her fingers pressed to either of their hands, and he felt dizzy for a few seconds, felt a rush of power and… and something. An echo of an all-encompassing pain, of bone-deep weariness and hunger. When the sensations faded and Renee fell quiet, she let her hands fall away then nodded.

“You’re bonded for now, until the moon waxes back to first quarter.” Renee gave him a heavy-lidded look as she tucked Nathaniel’s hand beneath the blanket. “Be careful.”

He gave her a mocking grin to hide how unbalanced the spell had left him. “How can you expect anything else from me? Well, up until he shows his true colors and reveals himself as a Moriyama vassal, that is.” He reached for his staff at that point. “He’ll get more than a headache from me then.”

“You need to learn to listen better,” Renee murmured as she rose to her feet, a little unstable at first. “Do you need me for anything else?” she asked Abby.

“No, get some rest while you can,” Abby told her. “You too,” she said to Bee with a weary smile. “Your efforts are valued.”

“We are always of service,” Bee said, which was awful forward of her but Renee smiled and nodded in agreement. “Andrew, are you coming, too?” she asked even when her expression was one of tired resignation.

“Oh no, I’m going to have a little sleepover with my new friend here,” Andrew told her. “Well, he’ll sleep at least.” No rest for the wicked, it seemed as Andrew hopped up on one of Abby’s tables and sat with his back against the wall.

“The Three curse it, what do you have against the poor kid?” Wymack demanded to know as he gave up on restoring order to one of Abby’s shelves in favor of glaring at Andrew. “You really think he’s going to wake up and attempt to hurt or kidnap Kevin?”

“Maybe,” Andrew admitted. He hated not knowing, hated being uncertain and so would remain on watch because all he had anymore were the promises he’d made.

“Andrew… those wounds are real,” Abby tried to argue. “ _All_ of them.”

He didn’t want to think about those bites and scratches and bruises, didn’t want to think about Abby demanding privacy as she’d removed the rest of Nathaniel’s clothes. Didn’t want to think about what Drake had intended with the iron manacles all those years ago, about that one foster- “Then all I’m doing is losing a night of sleep,” he told her as he had to keep the spirits from inflicting even more damage to the lab. As if he could sleep that night – what remained of it – after everything, after the memories had been dredged up and all.

Not that they were ever that far from the surface. What good was living so long when you didn’t forget anything? Even if the years tended to blur together, some things were never too far from the surface it seemed.

He settled on the table with the spirits gathered around him while Abby set about putting her lab back in order; Wymack disappeared to go fetch some coffee, deigning to give Andrew a mug with a sour look when he returned. It was maybe an hour or two later when there were signs of life from the bed, faint twitches almost as if Nathaniel was having a nightmare, and then after a couple of seconds his eyes were wide open.

He remained still for a moment longer as his unnatural eyes darted about to take in the room around him while Andrew set his second cup of coffee aside and gathered his staff to him, the spirits once again spooked. Andrew could feel an odd tug inside of his chest, an ‘almost’ pull on his magic yet not which he took to mean that the rabbit was trying to flee, to use the shadows to run away, and tamped down on it _hard_. That made Nathaniel gasp as if in pain which drew Abby’s and Wymack’s attention.

“Andrew?”

While Abby spoke, Nathaniel threw back the covers and attempted to run in a more physical manner, but got maybe one step from the bed before he fell to the floor like a puppet with its strings cruelly cut – all long limbs bent in twisted angles. He spoke in something – French, Andrew thought, having heard Kevin speak it a little, his voice rough and quiet.

“Oh no, don’t move, you’ll hurt yourself!” Abby said as she rushed toward him, only to step back with a gasp when Nathaniel attempted to fling a pillow at her; his bruised face was flushed and those strange eyes of his bright and wide, the all-pale blue irises on display with the vertical pupils little more than slits.

“Oberon’s balls,” Wymack breathed out in shock while Andrew hopped down next to him. “What… _how_?”

“Let me go,” Nathaniel rasped out. “Let me _go_!”

Abby gasped again and shook her head, while Nathaniel seemed to fumble about with the change of clothes he’d been given as if to feel for the knife he’d had when he’d arrived. “Drop the… the wa-arhd or… let me go!” he demanded as he looked around, clearly desperate for some sort of weapon he could use, for something to help him escape; he was drawn in on himself and scrambling about, all clawed hands and huge eyes and darting motions despite the fact that he was trembling violently. It also looked as if he’d torn at least some of his new stitches with either his fall or his frantic motions, since there were spots of blood on some of the new bandages.

Andrew wasn’t the only one to notice, since Abby let out another gasp and made to step forward, at least before Wymack pulled her back and Nathaniel found a bottle of something that had been missed in their cleanings and threw it at them – at least, he _tried_ , since he was too weak to throw it very far.

One of the spirits, a young man who’d only been with Andrew a few months, managed to knock it aside, and Andrew had decided that he had enough. He stepped forward with the staff raised in his hands, which made Nathaniel stop muttering in French and eye him with caution even as he hunched into himself even more despite the broken ribs and everything.

“Andrew, don’t,” Abby called out while Andrew grinned at the cringing Fae.

“You’re awfully ill-mannered for an uninvited guest, yes?” he said as he stepped forward, and noticed how Nathaniel paid more attention to the iron tips of the staff than him. “Time for another lesson, hmm?”

“Let me go, let me go, just let me go!” Nathaniel chanted as he dug his fingers in his hair. “Don’ want any of this, just wanna go away!”

“Dammit, Andrew, you will _not_ touch him with iron, do you understand me? I won’t allow any of my people to do something so vile!” Wymack commanded. “Back the fuck down _now_!”

For a moment Andrew felt something inside of him push to move forward, to press the end of his staff against Nathaniel’s too pretty face, to- he let out a shuddering breath as he pushed aside the rage, the urge to hurt (why was it so strong? why _now_?) and gestured to the nearest spirit to grab the pain in the ass kid instead. For once it listened to him, probably because it was already so close to Nathaniel.

“No, don’t _, go away_ ,” Nathaniel yelled as if he could sense the thing, his bandaged arms raised as if to shield himself, and then he shuddered right as pain shot through Andrew, as he heard the spirit cry out and then all of a sudden grow quiet.

As he realized that the spirit was gone, was no longer there.

As he realized that a few of the bruises on Nathaniel’s face had vanished or lessened, had seemed to heal at an accelerated rate.

That realization was followed by another ‘tug’ as Nathaniel attempted to escape again, only to be blocked by whatever it was that Renee had done with the damn ‘bond’ thing. Meanwhile, Andrew raised the staff once more while the rest of the spirits took to wailing in his head and wrecking the just restored lab – at least, the parts _away_ from Nathaniel. “What did you do? What the _fuck_ did you do?”

“The fuck did I tell you?” Wymack shouted as he grabbed at the staff and wrestled it away from Andrew, during which Nathaniel scurried beneath the bed while babbling in some odd language. “He’s a damn Folús Sidhe like his father,” Wymack ground out as he managed to yank the staff free and throw it across the room. “Oberon’s balls, but he takes after _both_ of them.”

“What the hell does that even mean?” Andrew demanded to know as he went to have one of the spirits retrieve his weapon, yet for some reason they couldn’t budge the staff; he noticed that Wymack was gesturing at the wooden staff and frowned, but decided he’d figure things out later. “You mentioned that name earlier.”

“Folús Sidhe, and dammit, Abby, leave the kid alone before he drains you dead, too!” he shouted at his girlfriend, who was hovering near the bed.

“He could have done that years ago instead of saving me,” she snapped at him, but she stopped just shy of arm’s reach of the bed. “It’s all right, Neil, we won’t hurt you,” she told Nathaniel, who was still mumbling something from his spot beneath the bed. Andrew realized that the shadow walker was speaking old Fae, something he’d only heard a few times and that from Kevin when he used it for a couple of complex spells. “I swear to you that we won’t hurt you, that you’re safe here. Won’t you come out so I can look at your wounds?”

There was a bit more mumbling in the ancient language, and then the sound of Nathaniel shifting about. “Just let me go,” he repeated yet again. “I won’t come back, I promise. I _never_ want to come back. Just let me go and I’ll stay away from the knowes and everything. Why can’t you leave me alone?” He sounded confused and tired and minutes away from passing out again.

“Oh sweetie… we’re not trying to hurt you.” Abby appeared ready to cry for some reason, and Andrew decided that he’d had enough; he went over crouch down near the healer and glared at the half-hidden Fae, and noticed that Nathaniel’s eyes glowed in the darkness beneath the bed like those of a nocturnal creature’s.

“Listen up, Wesninski.” He grinned at the way the name made Nathaniel flinch. “There is no ‘letting you go’, not for the time being, so be good or I’ll wrap you in enough iron to flay the remaining flesh from your bones.” He ignored Abby’s and Wymack’s cries and curses for that remark. “Drain another person and I’ll make you _eat_ that iron, do you understand?”

Icy blue eyes glared back at him for several seconds without blinking before Nathaniel spoke with clear loathing. “Understood.” He somehow managed to tuck himself even more into a ball, which made Abby hiss in displeasure.

“Good boy,” Andrew taunted as he stood up and walked away, ignoring Abby’s dark look and Wymack’s scowl with practiced ease; he went over to the one shelf and searched among the scattered vials for a small bottle of his ‘happy juice’ before he left the lab with a jaunty salute so he could get a couple hours of rest – a few of the spirits were left behind (with obvious reluctance) to ensure that Aaron or Kevin didn’t go into the lab and to warn him if the rabbit tried to leave.

Just as expected, Andrew didn’t get any proper sleep thanks to the nightmares, but he managed a little before he gave up on the useless endeavor and, after a fresh dose of the drug, decided it was time for some answers. He detoured to the kitchen for some coffee and muffins on his way to Kevin’s rooms, and was finished with the first by the time he entered the pain in his ass’ quarters.

Kevin Day, Tuatha de Danann, mage extraordinaire, wunderkind swordsman – well, at least until Riko had crippled him, how sad – was sprawled out on his bed drooling onto his pillow with an empty vodka bottle still clutched in his right hand as if it were some sort of teddy bear. What an inspiration for the ages. Andrew shoved the last of the muffins into his mouth while he started to clap and had a couple of spirits shove the drunk onto the floor.

While Kevin let out an incoherent yell, he went over to one of the bedroom’s bookshelves and started to riffle through the many books to find what he was looking for – it would be old and bound in leather with gold gilt writing on the spine.

“Fuck ‘drew,” Kevin complained, followed by a low moan. There was the sound of weak flailing and some pathetic groaning before Kevin managed to get onto his feet with the help of the spirits. “Such an assho- oh, no, not the books! Dammit, what did I tell you about them?” He stumbled over to Andrew’s side as Andrew found the one he was looking for and pulled it from the shelf.

“What’s a Folús Sidhe?” Andrew asked as he avoided Kevin’s weak attempt to take the book from him. One pointed look from him made Kevin go still and step back.

“Uhm, that’s… it’s Nathan Wesninski,” Kevin explained as he rubbed at his left shoulder as if in pain. “His talent, uhm, magic… he kills people with a touch.” Kevin looked at his hand on his shoulder and shuddered. “Either with his own flesh or by using a weapon to draw blood, once he has the right conduit he kills them in an instant and takes their magic as energy, from what I understand.” A haunted expression came over Kevin’s face as he spoke.

“So you’ve seen it.”

“Yeah.” Kevin closed his eyes and shivered. “Yeah, I’ve _seen_ it. It’s in part why he’s called ‘the Butcher’, dammit.” He wiped his hand over his face then shook his head. “Why he’s so feared. He doesn’t need iron to kill you, not when he’ll cut you up to make you go mad with the pain and then kill you with a touch once he’s done being amused with it all.” A slight, mirthless laugh escaped him as he slumped against the bookshelf. “He’s part of the reason why the Moriyamas are so powerful.”

What if the Moriyamas had _two_ Butchers, hmm? A Butcher who could slip into any knowe and kill anyone he touched? Oh, Andrew was beginning to understand why the Moriyamas had hunted down a certain rabbit, why they were so determined to break him. The question remained – _had_ they broken him?

“What’s the deal with these Fae here?” he asked while he held up the thick book, since he had several questions that needed answered at the moment, and only certain ones by Kevin.

“Eh? Oh, the book. Leave it alone, it’s worth a hell of a lot more than that damn car of yours,” Kevin snapped as he snatched at it, only to be blocked by a spirit.

“Ah, ah, be gentle or something will happen to it,” Andrew warned with a sharp smile as he flipped through the heavy ornate pages to find the picture he wanted: it was an image of what he supposed was Oberon and the two queens, one with long, straight black hair and pale skin, the other with bright red curls trailing down her back and skin similar in color to Andrew’s coffee once he finished adding enough cream and sugar. Hmm, come to think about it, Nathaniel resembled her more than just with the pointy ears poking out through auburn curls, now didn’t he? “Who is she?” Andrew asked as he tapped the page. “Which queen?”

“If you paid any attention to what I tried to teach you, you’d know,” Kevin said as he managed to latch onto the book. “That’s Maeb, you ignorant runt,” he cursed, for a moment sounding an awful lot like Wymack. “Now why did you drag me out of bed for a bunch of stuff that could have waited a few more hours?” he whined.

Cue the hysterics any minute now, Andrew told himself as he lit a cigarette. “Another question. When’s the last time you saw anyone who looked like those three?” he asked while he ignored the dirty look sent his way.

“I haven’t,” Kevin muttered as he cradled the book to his chest. “And what did I say about smoking in here! These books are precious and- dammit!” He scowled some more when Andrew blew smoke in his face then smirked.

“What do you mean, you haven’t?”

“Because I _haven’t,_ ” Kevin ground out while he returned the book to the shelf then looked around the room, probably for some alcohol. “Some of the Firstborn had the more exaggerated features, but not as pronounced as the Three, and most of them went off with the Three when they… I don’t know, disappeared or whatever.” He went over to his dresser and pulled a fifth of vodka out of the top drawer rather than a pair of pants to pull over his boxers, unconcerned that he was only wearing them and a ratty t-shirt. After a few sips he sighed and wiped his lips dry as he looked at Andrew. “Why do you want to know?”

Andrew flicked ash onto the carpet as he gave Kevin a cruel smile, well aware of how his friend would react to the words. “Because there’s someone in Abby’s lab who looks an awful lot like one of those ‘Three’, someone whom you know. Nathaniel Wesninski.”

At first Kevin merely stared at him, and then the coward let out a weak moan and finished off the rest of the vodka; Kevin may think that Andrew was lazy and cruel and various other unpleasant things, but he knew that Andrew never lied to him – not the variations of twisted or omitted truths that served the Fae as ‘lies’.  Once the alcohol was gone, Kevin let the bottle fall to the floor then jerked both hands through his hair. “Nah-nathaniel’s here? _How_?”

“Hmm, it seems the little rabbit managed to slip free from the Moriyamas somehow, and then into our knowe looking for stuff to heal his many booboos. Or so it _seems_ ,” Andrew stressed. “The spirits sensed him and woke me up, and I kept him from slipping away.” He grinned as he mimed a swinging motion with his hands. “Renee did something with her magic to bind him to me for twenty-eight days, since Wymack and Abby are a bunch of soft-hearted fools who want him to stick around long enough to heal, and oh, yes, it seems he’s a Folús Sidhe, too, just like dear Daddy.” Andrew huffed as he slumped against a bookshelf. “See what you all miss when you drink yourself into a drunken stupor every night?”

“Don’t,” Kevin warned as he rummaged through the drawer again, but surprise, surprise, to pull out clothes and not more alcohol. “It’s really Nathaniel?”

Hmm, perhaps Andrew should cut back on his drinking, if Kevin was any indication of what laid in store for him in a few decades. Then again, what did Andrew care? “How many other shadow walkers do you know who can also drain something’s magic and energy with a touch?”

Kevin paused in the process of pulling on a shirt. “Who… who did he kill?”

Any amusement – drug induced or not – faded at the question. “One of my spirits.” Most of them couldn’t even remember their names, just another thing lost in the trauma of death, so Andrew couldn’t even give him a proper memorial.

Kevin shrugged as he yanked the sweatshirt over his head. “Oh, okay.” He ignored the virulent look Andrew gave him for that blasé acceptance. “You said he was hurt? Nathaniel, I mean.”

Wonderful, Kevin really knew how to stumble along such delightful topics, didn’t he? “Just a little. It seems that your old friends like to play a little rough,” Andrew announced, and waited to see the coward’s reaction. Waited to see just how much Kevin knew about what all the Moriyamas had done to Nathaniel.

“Rough.” Kevin stared at the jeans in his hands and shuddered. “They… if they did anything to him like they do to Jean, he’s in bad shape. Riko enjoys beating and carving up Jean. No one stopped him or reined him in, not even Tetsuji.” He gave a slight, bitter laugh as his hands clenched around the jeans. “Or me, to be honest. I just helped patch Jean up from time to time.”

Andrew watched him struggle to pull on the jeans with his trembling hands. “Is that _all_ he did? Beat and slice up Jean?” he asked in a deceptively quiet voice.

Kevin frowned as he stood up. “Uhm, yeah. Well, Jean and others who made him angry.” Then he huffed as he held up his scarred left hand. “You know.”

“Not really.” Andrew didn’t think the coward was lying, not when he knew how much it would upset Andrew, not when he relied on Andrew to keep him safe and out of the Moriyamas’ hands. "Though I have a better idea of it now, after seeing more of his work in person."

Kevin gripped the top of the dresser for support as he hung his head, for a moment appearing ready to throw up. "Nathaniel... they would have wanted him to swear to them, to agree to be one of theirs. They would need him to swear an oath to them to bind him, to make him loyal." Kevin's mouth twisted a little then, probably over the fact that the Moriyamas had never made _him_ swear anything - they'd never needed to, really. They'd just provided him with a home and treated him mostly as one of their own, not quite a proper son, not quite a Moriyama but better than leaving him without a knowe or protection, better than they treated Jean or the others. Riko had been an almost brother, Tetsuji an almost father... until the day that Riko's jealousy had gotten out of hand and Kevin had nearly lost his. Oh how sad, Andrew felt a tickle in the back of his throat - ah, it was a laugh, not tears. He always confused the two. Well, no, not really, seeing that he hadn't cried in... hmm, decades now.

He certainly wasn't going to cry over a coward like Day.

"We don't know for certain that he didn't swear to them, so until we do, watch yourself around him, do you understand?" Andrew warned as he pushed away from the bookshelf.

"Yeah." Kevin seemed to think about something as he stared at the top of the dresser. "Nathaniel was always stubborn, he wouldn't give up on anything despite being so small and younger than us. He got that from his mother." Then he winced. "His mother and his father." Then he spun around fast enough to face Andrew that he nearly tripped over his feet. "Wait, you said something about him looking like the Three, right? What did you mean?"

How boring. Andrew sighed as he walked from the room, in the mood for more coffee and sweets, and another cigarette as well – a nice physical buzz to match the rush in his head. "Just how many different ways can those words mean?"

"What? But that's not... he never looked like that before!" Kevin went barreling for the door, his longer legs getting him there before Andrew, at least until a few helpful spirits blocked the coward.

"Ah, ah, not so fast. Caffeine and food first," Andrew insisted while Kevin sulked, but someone knew better than to argue by now. At least, to argue too much, though Kevin was a sulky presence the entire time it took them to go fetch something from the kitchen and then stroll over to Abby's lab (Andrew may have purposely dawdled along the way, just to annoy the pain in the ass).

Speaking of irritants, he found another surly bastard standing in front of the door to the lab when they arrived, one bearing a similar face. "Andrew! Why the hell can't I go in to see Abby? Wave off your undead watchdogs, dammit!" Aaron yelled at him as soon as they came within sight.

"No," Andrew told him. "Go study with Bee for the next few days."

" _Fuck_ you," was Aaron's instant retort. "I'm working on some stuff in there and I need to get in!"

Aaron meant he _had_ been working on some things, considering the mess Andrew's spirits had made the night before. "Abby's got a visitor and you're staying away from him," Andrew told his twin. "Now go away."

Aaron's eyes narrowed even more in anger. "If she's tending to someone, then I've even more right to be in there, you asshole. Now fuck off and take your playthings with you."

Before Andrew could have his 'playthings' shove his brother down the hall, Bee opened the door to give all three of them a disapproving look. "No more yelling. Either go away or come in here, but in both instances you will be quiet."

"He's not letting me inside," Aaron was quick to tattle, which made Bee give Andrew a narrow look.

"Andrew, let him in. Neil isn't a threat." She held his gaze for several seconds then gave a slight nod.

"Fine, but you owe me a new brother if you're wrong," Andrew remarked as he told the spirits to stand down. "Hopefully a much improved version - though I hardly can see how anyone could be worse than the current."

"Fuck you, too," Aaron muttered as he was quick to shove his way inside the lab.

"My point, proven," Andrew sang out.

"Why am I awake for this?" Kevin asked as he rubbed at his bloodshot eyes, yet he followed Andrew into the lab.

Order had more or less been restored since Andrew had left, but Aaron took to cursing anew as he went over to where some plants and vials had been at one point during the night and now there was only a bare table. As for Andrew, he noticed that the one bed was empty... but there was a makeshift tent of sorts in the far corner, some blankets rigged over what looked to be a pallet set on the floor, which allowed a shaded area for a small form huddled inside.

"Abby and I set it up for him since he wasn't coming out from beneath the bed," Bee explained in a quiet voice while Kevin took to staring at the corner. "He's obviously more comfortable in a defensive position, as well as away from bright lights."

Wymack wasn't anywhere to be seen, but he was probably off with Dan tending to the knowe, while Abby was crouched near the 'tent' trying to cajole Nathaniel to eat something; the healer appeared exhausted and anxious, which wasn't a surprised since she'd been up all night dealing with an unknown Fae who could kill someone with a mere touch.

"Our guest try anything while I was gone?" Andrew asked. "Murder anyone else? Steal anything?"

Bee gave him a cool look. "No, just repeats that he wants to be left alone anytime we try to get him to talk and won't let us touch him now that he's awake."

What a surprise, that last part. "What a shame. Perhaps we can leave him alone with Seth and Allison, help get rid of some of the more annoying pests around here."

"That's not very nice," Bee admonished him - she knew better than to tell him that he didn't mean what he'd just said.

Meanwhile, Kevin had begun to edge closer to the tent; Andrew had to grab onto the back of his shirt, since the spirits weren't going anywhere near Nathaniel after what had happened a few hours ago. "What did I say? I know you haven't had that much to drink yet."

"I need to see him," Kevin mumbled as he tugged on his shirt. "Let me get closer."

"It's too early for this idiocy," Andrew decided, but he allowed the coward to go over to Abby's side. "So what, first he breaks in and then he snubs our food? What an ingrate."

"Andrew, I don't need your type of 'help' right now," Abby said, the tension in her voice making it clear that she was low on patience - at least for him - at the moment. "Neil, you need to eat something if you want to heal. There's nothing bad in here, I swear to you upon the stars above that it's safe. You watched me eat it, you watched Betsy eat it, it's fine. Just a simple barley gruel with a few herbs that'll make you feel better," she pleaded as she held out a bowl of food to him for a few more seconds, then set it on the floor.

The bundle of blankets tucked into the far corner didn't move, but there was the glow of light reflecting off of the inner films of his eyes. "No."

Kevin's jaw worked for a second or two before he said anything. "What the... Nathaniel? Is that really you? What in the myriad hells did you do to yourself? Did Tetsuji do this to you?" At the mention of the Moriyama's name, the bundle flinched and then there was a spat of French.

Soon enough it was Kevin's turn to flinch then he shook his head. When he went to speak again, Andrew elbowed him in the side. "English so the rest of us can follow along," he insisted with a sharp grin, displeased at being left out over the recent exchange. Kevin gave him a nervous glance but spoke in English, his tone uncertain at first.

“I didn’t… I did what I could for Jean, I-“ he was interrupted by a loud snort of derision, which made Nathanial hunch over some more and Kevin’s green eyes flash with anger. “Dammit, what do you know? You were there for a few months, I was there for decades!”

There was more muttered French from the shadow walker, which made Andrew grab the spoon from the bowl on the floor and fling it at the corner; he ignored Abby’s upset cry to grin at the luminescent eyes narrowed at him. “What did I tell you about behaving, hmm?”

“I’m not _touching_ anyone,” Nathaniel said in English, hatred all but dripping from the words. “Go away.”

“That’s not how this goes,” Andrew told him with a mocking grin as he itched to drag the rabbit out by those ears, as he sought to push and push and _push_ until something broke – preferably Nathaniel. Until Nathaniel cracked open down the middle and told him all he wanted to know. “That’s not how this game is played.”

“I’m not playing anything,” Nathaniel muttered as he flung the spoon back at Andrew, who caught it with ease.

“Shall I break out the iron then?”

“What the _fuck_?” Kevin asked, the blood draining from his face as he clutched at his left hand, while Abby appeared ready to fling herself in front of Nathaniel if necessary and Aaron inched closer to three of them.

“You wouldn’t,” Bee told Andrew, who merely smiled at Nathaniel as he tapped the dirty spoon against his left knuckles.

“What’ll it be, rabbit?” he asked; he _would_ do it, would wrap that scarred body in iron if Riko had sent Nathaniel here for Kevin. “Feeling a bit anemic? Or are you going to be good and come out here?” He motioned with the spoon to the spot in front of him.

Nathaniel regarded him with those eerie eyes for several more seconds, before they vanished into the shadows as he closed them. “Go fuck yourself,” he said, his voice ragged and weak. “I don’t fucking care just _do it_.”

Andrew continued to tap for a few more seconds before he made a sound of disgust; the Moriyamas might not have broken Nathaniel to their will, but they’d broken something in him. Had broken him to the point where he didn’t care what happened to him anymore.

Bee seemed to notice that too, as she took a step forward with a frown on her face, probably intent on saying something to Nathaniel, to talk to him. That wasn’t going to work, not when the kid was all on the defensive. So Andrew threw the spoon aside as he lunged forward to grab one of the blankets to yank it down.

“Andrew, don’t hurt him!” Abby yelled, while Andrew felt a jolt of magic slam into him that made him stumble; a curse, but a weak one, something that made his nerves tingle and muscles spasm as his fingers clutched at the soft fabric. He had a feeling that if Nathaniel wasn’t so drained of magic and energy at the moment, he’d be writhing on the floor in a hell of a lot of pain.

Oooh, the rabbit had a nasty set of teeth on him.

Still, weakened curse or not, Andrew fell to his knees a couple of feet away from Nathaniel, who was pressed as far into the corner as he could go with his left forearm thrown over his eyes from the sudden rush of light and his right arm outstretched as if to ward off a blow – a right arm covered in gleaming silver, including his hand, extending to his index and middle fingers and ending in sharp claws.

The rabbit apparently had a set of claws on him, too. Andrew found himself mildly piqued despite the tremors and unpleasant tingles in his limbs. Interesting.

“Oberon’s blood.” Kevin’s voice sounded almost reverent as he stumbled toward Nathaniel, only to stop when Andrew managed to fling out his arm to block him. “That’s… that’s _Maeb’_ s gauntlet, where did you find it?” He crouched down next to Nathaniel and gaped like an idiot at the kid. “Why are you wearing it? What did you-“

“Go away,” Nathaniel ground out. “Just… why are you doing this?” He sounded so confused just then as he lowered his left arm to glare at them, his pupils narrowed into slits because of the light. “Why can’t you just let me go?” Despite his furious expression, his tone was so plaintive in contrast.

“What the fuck is up with him?” Aaron whispered just a little too loud. “Why does he look like that – like a messed up cat or something.”

Andrew noticed how Nathaniel flinched at his brother’s words, when he’d been so defiant moments before, and threw the spoon behind him at the asshole. “Let the adults talk,” he warned Aaron when his brother complained while he continued to eye Nathaniel. “Now, are you going to answer some questions?”

Nathaniel managed a sneer even though he was still stooped over in pain and shaking with the effort of remaining somewhat upright. “Why? You’re no better than the Moriyamas. No better than _them_.”

He meant the bastards who had hurt him, who had used iron on him and cut him up, broken his ribs and spirit, had held him down and- “We’re not them,” Andrew said in an even voice while his fingers skittered along the inside of the armbands and the spirits became agitated. “You’d be in a cell by now if we were.”

“And this is so much better?” Nathaniel lowered his right arm to his bent knees. “Being bound to one of you and trapped here?”

“You’re not bleeding yet, are you?” Andrew asked with a grin.

“He won’t be bleeding at all,” Abby said as she stepped forward. “I told you, Neil, you’re here to heal and for your own safety, that’s all. Soon enough you’ll be free to go wherever you want, I _promise_ you that.” She inched forward to pick up the abandoned bowl. “I hope you realize that you can trust us.” She cast Andrew a quick look then shook her head. “All of us, even if some are a bit rough around the edges.”

“I’m fine,” Nathaniel murmured as he tugged at his raggedly cut hair. “I’m fine on my own.”

“Not with most of the Fae after you,” Abby insisted. “Not in such bad shape. Rest up while you can where you’re safe. The Foxhole Court is a sanctuary, is somewhere the Moriyamas can’t come.”

Nathaniel glanced at Kevin for a moment and then Andrew. “What about _him_?”

Oh, someone didn’t think much of him, Andrew’s heart was broken by such blatant suspicion and dislike. He sniffed back the tears while Abby shook her head. “He won’t harm you, I promise.”

Someone should be more careful in the oaths they swore. “Let’s just say it’ll be better for you if you just do things my way.”

“ _Andrew_ ,” both Bee and Abby warned; he turned to give them a blank look.

“What, it’s the truth.”

“Get out,” Abby ordered while pointing to the door. “Get out of here, I’m not going to have you bother my patients like that, Andrew Joseph Minyard.”

Andrew gave Nathaniel a quick salute as he decided that he’d allow the healer her way for once; it looked as if the shadow walker was about to pass out from exhaustion anyway, so best to come back and ‘play’ another day. “We’ve almost a month, Nathaniel, I’ll get what I want eventually.”

Kevin didn’t move at first, at least until Abby glared at him. “But I want to know-“

“You’re out of here as well,” she told him, and then pointed at Aaron, too. “All of you, _out_.”

“I didn’t even _do_ anything,” Aaron grumbled as he joined Andrew and a sulking Kevin. “Wonderful, guilt by association with you assholes.”

Andrew didn’t say anything since he much preferred that his brother and friend stay away from the shadow walker until he was a 100% certain that Nathaniel wasn’t some sort of agent for the Moriyamas. “Why not? You’re just as much of an asshole as we are.”

Aaron gave him the finger before stomping off, which left him with Kevin. “I wanted to talk to him, dammit,” the coward said as they headed toward the kitchen. “Maeb took that gauntlet with her when she left with Oberon, so how did Nathaniel get it? And what about his ears and eyes? They were normal when he was a child, what could have made them change like that?” An analytical Kevin was almost as annoying as a drunk Kevin.

“What’s so important about a fancy bracelet?”

Kevin looked at him as if he had said something insane. “A fancy- it’s _Maeb’s_ gauntlet,” Kevin stressed. “It’s enchanted to resist most jinxes and curses, to protect its wearer. Oberon himself made it – some say as a sign of affection for her, some say to protect her from Titania’s jealousy. It’s one of the most powerful enchanted items out there, believed lost for centuries, and now _Nathaniel_ has it?” Kevin’s expression turned pensive. “Tetsuji had to recognize it. He’ll want Nathaniel back for that alone. I’m surprised that he didn’t just take it from him, unless Nathaniel stole it before he escaped.”

Wonderful, so the rabbit was more of a ferret and one who would bring all the more trouble to them in the end; it had been a mistake letting Renee do the bonding spell. “Give me five minutes alone with him and I’ll get you those answers,” Andrew promised as he shook out a cigarette.

Except it wasn’t as easy as that (it was _never_ as easy as that, one day Andrew would learn). Abby was serious about banning Andrew (and Kevin, and Aaron – which made him even more of an annoying fuck – and Nicky) from the lab while Nathaniel healed, and the rest of the Foxes backed her up once they found out about their special ‘guest’. Seth and Allison probably because they were only too happy to piss off Andrew and were amused that he’d managed to anger Abby so much, Renee because she was ever the bleeding heart, Dan because she backed Wymack (and Abby) as always, and Matt because apparently he took one look at a battered ‘Neil’ (as the others had taken to calling Nathaniel) and decided to adopt the ‘poor kid’. A ‘poor kid’ who had survived months of intense torture at the hands of the Moriyamas, who could kill with a single touch.

Andrew could sorely use such an ability and put it to good use ridding the world of unnecessary idiots.

He was stuck with an even surlier brother than usual, anxious spirits because of their guest, Kevin torn between having a nervous breakdown at the thought of the Moriyamas sending people to the knowe at any moment to drag Nathaniel (and him) back by force and indignation at not being able to have his _so important_ questions answered, overbearing Foxes, Nicky whining about being unable to see ‘the cutie’ (all right, perhaps Nathaniel could drain _one_ person while at the knowe) and a possible traitor in his home. Not even his happy juice, which he was stuck taking all of the time in case someone from the SEC or an outside knowe stopped by because of Nathaniel, helped to calm the rage and unsettledness he felt deep down inside, helped to keep him from wanting to grab something and smash it to pieces all of the time.

It may be that the gardens ended up a bit ragged, the curtains around the main hall a bit tattered, the second best set of china… well, there was no more second best set of china. Andrew hasn’t expressed himself through his spirits so much in decades, but his patience had worn thin and he didn’t appreciate the idea of a knife at his neck in the middle of the night, of threats to those he has sworn to protect that he had to all but ignore. That he had to allow on his watch.

Of being forced to break his word because of the stupidity of others.

It took him a few days to realize the growing sense of desperation wasn’t just his, some of it was Nathaniel’s coming over the damn bond, before he went in search of Renee. It took him a little while to get her alone, away from Dan and Allison, but he managed it one evening when she was out tending to the garden.

"I thought your thing was water, not plants."

"I thought you were intelligent enough to not believe in clichés and stereotypes," she chided him as she tended to a rather scruffy looking rosebush. "Besides, they need all the help they can get, considering the beating they took." She gave him a mildly reproachful look at that as if it was his fault, the pathetic state of the garden. Oh, wait, it was. Well, partially his fault. Wasn't as if he'd told the spirits to target the plants and all. Sometimes bad things happened, something the Foxes should well know by then.

He was just reinforcing valuable life lessons, and did anyone appreciate him? Ah well, he was used to it.

_Focus,_ he told himself as he nudged a pile of soil back into the hole despite the green thing waiting to be planted into it sitting next to it. When Renee sighed and sat back on her heels to look up at him, he gave her a bright smile. More or less - it was a baring of teeth without the intention of sinking them into her throat, so all was good.

"Do you want something other than to torment me?" she asked as she folded her dirty hands on her lap.

"Oh, that's always amusing, but I don't need to come out here to do that," Andrew confessed. "What's going on with our little larcenous rabbit, hmm?" When she merely gazed up at him, he clicked his tongue. "With Nathaniel."

"Ah, you mean Neil," she corrected him with a slight smile, which was annoying. "I told you, he doesn't feel like a 'Nathaniel' anymore, and he won't respond when we call him that."

"I don't care." That wasn't a whole truth - if Andrew could figure out the Fae's true name, he would be very happy - perhaps truly happy for once - since it would give him a powerful weapon, but he doubted that such a thing would fall into his hand so easily. "What's wrong with him? Isn't he healing?"

The smile faded from Renee's face as she toyed with one of the green serrated leaves of the rose bush in front of her. "No, it's not that, Abby is too good of a healer for that. It's that he's not eating properly," she explained as her expression grew worried. "He barely drinks more than water and can't keep down the little bit of food he does eat, and Abby's becoming gravely concerned."

Andrew nudged at another pile of dirt as he considered that; it sounded a bit like goblin fruit, but Nathaniel was a pureblood so it didn't make sense. Was there some other weird type of fruit out there? Perhaps Kevin, the walking encyclopedia, would know. "Anything else? He's still not talking to anyone, is he?"

She shook her head. "No, it's clear he doesn't trust us much.” Ah, why did she look so upset over that fact, the woman who had bound the shadow walker to Andrew? Of course 'Neil' didn't trust them, not after what the Moriyamas had done to him.

Andrew left her to play in the dirt and found Kevin reading in one of the knowe’s libraries while stealing sips from his flask, which he swiped and finished off. He was glared at for his theft, at least until he passed on what Renee had told him. Kevin became thoughtful after that as he puzzled out what might be affecting his old 'friend' and got up from the table where he'd been sitting in search of new books. Andrew watched him for a few minutes, at least until Kevin stared off into space after grabbing a particularly thick book only to slam it back into the shelf.

"No, the damn fool didn't," he proclaimed to no one in particular before he stalked out of the library with an apparent destination in mind, while Andrew sighed as he got up to follow.

"Didn't what?" he asked, but it didn't seem like Kevin was in the mood to share as he cursed in French, Japanese and Fae as he headed to what turned out to be Abby's lab.

Abby looked up from something she was brewing in a small cauldron to scowl at them while a scowling Dan hurried to block their path, her hand hovering near the long dagger sheathed on her right hip. "You were told to stay out of here," she informed them while Kevin glanced around her to the blanket draped pallet in the corner, which Matt was standing in front of with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"I need to talk to Nathaniel," Kevin insisted as he scowled back at Dan. "Just talk."

"Which is why you brought _him_ along, huh?" Dan shook her head. "No, Neil's been through enough so just-"

"It's about why he's not eating," Kevin argued, which made Dan falter and back down a little while she glanced over at Abby, who had taken the small cauldron off of the tripod so its contents could cool.

"What do you know?" the healer asked as she gave Kevin a considering look. "Did the Moriyamas do something to him? Is it some sort of potion?"

Kevin shook his head as he motioned behind Dan. "I need to talk to him."

Abby continued to regard him for a couple of seconds before she nodded to Dan. "As long as it's just _talking_." She gave a pointed look to Andrew. " _Both_ of you."

"Where's the trust?" Andrew asked as he smirked at Dan while he walked past the dryad.

"It's called 'experience'," Abby shot back, and Andrew let her have that round.

As expected, the spirits stayed far away from Nathaniel, but Andrew enjoyed pushing a displeased Matt aside himself to make the man get out of his and Kevin's way. "You even try to touch him and I'm breaking your arm," Matt warned, while Andrew sneered in return over that improbable threat.

Meanwhile, 'Neil' fumbled to inch away from the two of them, his eyes sunken in his gaunt face and curls limp and dull. The gauntlet no longer covered his hand and fingers, Andrew noticed, and the metal appeared tarnished against his skin. "Go 'way," he mumbled as he pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, yet managed to glare at the two of them despite his lethargy.

"Nathaniel," Kevin started, then flinched when 'Neil's' scowl deepened. "Right, Neil, they say you prefer Neil." He actually seemed uncertain for a moment as he stroked the fingers of his right hand along the scars on the back of his left. "You're not eating." When all Neil did was stare back at him, Kevin sighed. "Look, I'll just ask it, how long were you on the Dark Road?"

Neil didn't speak, which wasn't surprising, but Andrew caught the quick glimmer of interest in those unnatural eyes before the Fae ducked his head, and so did Kevin. "Oberon's blood, don't tell me you've been there most of the time, that's why no one could find you! No one's supposed to stay there! There's the shadow wolves and... and everything!"

"It's better than here," Neil said, his voice quiet at first. "The Dark Road is a thousand times better than here - than anyplace that has to do with the Fae or humans!" He ran his trembling right hand through his hair while rocking back and forth. "Just let me get back to it."

Kevin muttered something in Fae while shaking his head, his expression one of astonishment while he stared at Neil; for his part, Andrew was very tired of only grasping part of the conversation, but he didn't seem to be the only one as Dan, Matt and Abby were murmuring behind him about 'the Dark Road'. "You damn fool," Kevin eventually said in English. "You _can't_ live there!" That provoked a weak laugh from Neil. "No wonder you changed! You ate things there, didn't you?" When all Neil did was give him a flat look in return, Kevin took to speaking in Fae again, from the sound of it curses. "You can't change back!" he finally said in English. “You can’t return to normal!”

"I don't care," Neil spat as he risked leaning forward a little, his eyes bright with anger. "I don't want to, I just want to get back there and to be left alone! I don't want to have anything more to do with the Fae!" He was panting at the end, his body shaking from the effort and slumped back against the wall with his eyes half-closed.

"But...." Now Kevin appeared utterly confused, as if he hadn't expected Neil to say such things, to confirm his suspicions, while Abby hovered nearby with a mug of some concoction or another in her hands, her expression concerned. As for Andrew, all he had to do was think about all those cuts and scars, about those bite marks, and he could understand why Neil (why 'Neil'?) wanted to run as far from everyone as possible.

While Kevin stood there taking all of that in, Abby slowly approached their guest with the mug held out in front of her. "Here, Neil, please drink this. It should help a little." Andrew gave her a flat look but Neil slowly unfurled enough to accept the mug even as his hands shook so much as to cause its contents to slosh around.

"You need the food from the Dark Road," Kevin stated in a solemn voice, which made Abby gasp as she stepped back. As for Neil, all he did was stare into the mug and give a slight shrug. “You actually did it, you _ate_ something there. How could you be _that_ stupid?”

Neil looked up at him with a bleak expression. “And allowing my father to catch me was that much better?” He set the mug down, its contents splashing onto his nest of blankets because his hand trembled so much, so he could tug on the collar of the overlarge cream-colored shirt he was wearing – large on him, at least, with his thin, small frame. Tugged it down to reveal skin marred with old scars and healing cuts, with what looked like an old burn on his right shoulder. “Being in Riko’s hands wasn’t _stupid_?” he asked, his voice thick with sarcasm despite its weakness. “Nothing from the Dark Road ever harmed me.”

“But that’s impossible,” Kevin declared as he shook his head while Neil slumped back against the wall. “No one’s supposed to be able to _live_ there!” He frowned as if thinking of something, and then motioned to Neil – to the gauntlet. “Is that where you found Maeb’s gauntlet?”

Surprise, surprise, the rabbit pretended to not hear the question, choosing instead to close his eyes and curl up into himself again. Kevin’s frown deepened at that, but when he went to lean forward as if to shake Neil, Matt was quick to pull him back.

“You said you were just going to ask questions, not to harass him,” the Tylwyth Teg reminded Kevin, his large hand tightening on Kevin’s shoulder until a spirit shoved him away.

“No fighting,” Abby warned while she inched a little closer to Neil, which caused him to open his eyes and watch her with evident wariness. “And you need to drink that.”

Neil blinked a couple of times, the motion slow as if he was tired, before he picked up the mug and sipped the concoction with evident distaste, even appearing to gag a couple of times. Considering that Andrew could smell licorice and a hint of cocoa, he didn’t think it tasted too bad, whatever it was that Abby gave him (he had enough of her potions to know that she usually tried to make them palatable). Was it because the ingredients hadn’t come from the ‘Dark Road’?

The Moriyamas had to have done something to keep the idiot alive while he was in captivity, especially if they’d held him for months. While Andrew personally thought ‘Neil’ dying of starvation would be a nice way to get rid of an annoying problem, he knew there was no way that Wymack would allow that to happen to someone they’d taken into the knowe as a ‘guest’ (no matter under what circumstances). There was also the fact that Kevin seemed taken with Neil and the mystery he posed, seemed caught up in something other than ‘Oberon’s blood, the Moriyamas are going to come for me and I’m going to wish I were dead’ for once.

“How do you get to the Dark Road?” he asked Kevin. “ _Can_ you get to the Dark Road?”

Kevin was startled out of his musings while Neil paused in trying to choke down the potion and stared at the two of them. “Ah, I can teleport to it, there’s certain portals I can use since I’m not a shadow walker like Na- uhm, Neil,” he explained. “Why?”

“So we can go and get some food for our little rabbit here,” Andrew said with a mocking grin. “Some fresh greens for him to nibble on?”

“I’m not a rabbit, you asshole,” Neil complained as he set the mug aside.

“You certainly run like one,” Andrew taunted. “Maybe stay still for a little while and you can become something else, like a tame kitty-cat.” He paid close attention and noticed how Neil flinched that time, how he recoiled back into the corner even as he struggled to keep his face blank.

Ah, that was indeed a sore point for the Fae, how interesting.

“Bugger off,” Neil choked out as he rubbed at his face, then dropped his hand to give Andrew a chilling smile. “No, wait, come a little closer, let me show you my claws.” He flicked out his fingers a couple of times while Andrew stared at him.

No, not quite a rabbit after all, how interesting.

“You’re pretty feisty for someone starving to death.” Andrew bared his teeth as he leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. “But maybe you’re ready to give up now, willing to just starve yourself when in a couple of weeks you’ll be free.”

The cruel smile held for a few more seconds before it wavered. “ _If_ I’m free,” Neil said as his fingers curled into his palm.

Andrew scoffed at that. “Tell me that these fools haven’t convinced you yet that they’re not going to harm a hair on your head, that they’re going to just stand by and watch you run away once there’s another quarter moon in the sky. That they haven’t _sworn_ to do just that.”

Neil was quiet as he held Andrew’s gaze. “What about _you_?”

Perhaps not so much an idiot, too. “I was serious when I told you to behave.” He ignored Matt’s warning growl of his name, ignored Dan saying some in the back of the room. “But I’ll go with Kevin to the Dark Road and get you something to eat.”

That proclamation was followed by Kevin cursing softly and Neil continuing to stare at him. “And what do you want in return?”

Hmm, no, not too stupid at all – or at least, well familiar with how things worked when it came to the Fae. “I want some answers out of you.”

Now it was Neil’s turn to scoff. “That’s not asking much, is it? I’m not going to just tell you anything.”

Andrew nodded to concede that he had a point. “I want _some_ answers out of you. To make it more interesting, I’ll even allow you a few questions to ask in return. Surely there must be something you want to know, after being stuck in Evermore for so long.” He might as well make a game out of it, it might make things less boring for once. And to learn something from ‘Neil’ by the questions he asked.

Neil regarded him with narrowed eyes for several seconds as if searching for the trick, the trap to the offer, while Kevin stared at him as if he was crazy. Oh, Kevin should know the answer to that by now, so all Andrew did was stand there and smile until Neil sighed. “All right, I agree to your terms.”

“Wonderful!” Andrew grinned at a groaning Kevin. “We’re off on an adventure, isn’t it _exciting_?”

“The _Dark Road_ ,” Kevin moaned as he ran his hands through his hair while he looked as if he was about to be sick. “Do you have any idea what you just agreed for the both of us to do? Where we have to _go_ now?”

“It can’t be too bad if someone like him can survive there for so long,” Andrew said as he pushed off of the wall while smirking at Neil.

“I’d say that I wish the wolves would enjoy feasting on your flesh and cracking your bones for marrow, but something as uncouth and as foul as _you_ would make them sick,” Neil grumbled as he set the mug aside so he could lay down on the pallet, still curled up in a protective manner.

Andrew shook his head in mock reproach. “Now, now, didn’t anyone teach you some manners?”

Neil gave him an odd look, his head cocked to the side and his brow furrowed; it was difficult to read some of his emotions because of those eyes, so big and unnatural. “Huh,” he said as he studied Andrew for several seconds, then he closed his eyes and pulled a blanket up to his chin.

Abby was quick to move forward and shoo them away from the still-conscious Fae – Neil’s body was too tense for him to be asleep, even though he acted as if he was. As if he would sleep with everyone so close around him. “All right, everyone out,” she told them, even going so far as to give a stern look to Matt and Dan, who had retreated to the far end of the room. Then she smiled at Andrew and Kevin once they were a few feet away from Neil’s corner. “Thank you, he really needs something to eat soon.”

Dan heard that and nodded. “Yes, it’s a bit surprising, you offering to help out like that,” she said to Andrew, who gave her the finger for the comment. She sighed in response, while Matt glowered over the gesture. “Yeah, mature as always. Let us know if you want some help.”

“No,” Kevin said in a rush, which was surprising considering how he’d been whining a moment before about going off to the Dark Road. “It’ll be better if it’s just the two of us, if we just go there, get what we need and leave. We don’t want to attract any attention while we’re there.”

“If you say so.” Dan shook her head as Abby all but shoved the four of them out of the lab then closed the door behind them. “I’ll let Wymack know, he’s been pretty worried about Neil, too.”

Why the hell was everyone worried about one battered, larcenous Fae? Andrew didn’t understand, especially since it was clear that Neil was going to go back to his precious Dark Road as soon as Renee’s spell ran out. Which reminded him. “What’s so bad about the Dark Road?” he asked Kevin as they walked through the knowe, apparently toward Bee’s lab where there should be plenty of materials for whatever teleportation spells the coward needed. “It’s some place where shadow walkers go, right? Another realm?” Bee had told him that… oh, a couple of decades ago?

“This is why you need to read the books I give you!” Kevin gave him a dirty look before stumbling as a spirit tripped him. “Dammit. It’s… yes, it’s another realm.” His scowl deepened, but that time he was wise enough to not direct the look at Andrew. “Shadow walkers can access it naturally, but it takes a lot of effort for the rest of the Fae to get there, and we can only remain for as long as our spells hold out, which is never very long, and go back and forth via portals. Legend has it that Maeb created the Dark Road, or at least she discovered the realm and created the Dark Road on it so those of her blood could travel it safely.”

Wonderful – Kevin was Tuatha de Danann, which was Seelie and not Unseelie, and Andrew… hmm, perhaps one day he’d let someone read his blood and figure out on which side of the spectrum he fell, Seelie or Unseelie. “Neil’s Unseelie.” Kevin had said that he was of Maeb’s blood.

“Yeah.” For a moment the scowl smoothed away, to be replaced by a thoughtful expression. “His grandparents were Firstborn shadow walkers, were Scáth.” At Andrew’s arched eyebrow, Kevin shrugged. “It happens with the Fae – we’re all descended from Oberon, Titania and Maeb, after all.”

“Lovely,” Andrew said with obvious disgust.

“We’re not human,” Kevin reminded him, then seemed to catch himself. “Well, you know what I mean.”

Andrew ignored that jab about his changeling nature. “What about his father, Nathan Wesninski?”

The sick expression from earlier returned. “Nathan… Nathan of Baiting’s End is one of the last Firstborn. Some say that Maeb didn’t want to risk having another child, after producing him.”

Ah yes, one had to adore the Fae and their love for the dramatics. “Is that why he survived the Dark Road? Because of him being closely related to Maeb?”

The question seemed to distract Kevin from his musing of Nathan ‘the Butcher’. “Hmm, possibly.” He was quiet for a few seconds as he considered it, so distracted that he nearly ran into one of the knowe’s Brownies who was busy carrying an armful of linens almost as big as her. “I mean, other shadow walkers have disappeared on the Dark Road, it’s not unheard of. And other Unseelie. Laurent of Coeur de la Forêt was the son of a Firstborn, and he never came back from the Dark Road.” Kevin took to tapping his left hand on his empty sword belt, where he used to keep his sword before switching to using his right hand – a clear sign that he was lost in thought. “Is it a mix of the two bloodlines? Because he ate something there? We need to get him something to eat so he’ll give us some answers!”

Hmm, Neil was proving to be a wonderful distraction indeed.

Now to see if he proved to be a distraction which got them killed on the ‘Dark Road’.

*******

Neil lay on the soft pallet and watched Abby move about the large room through heavy-lidded eyes as exhaustion and hunger weighed down on him; he thought he could mostly trust the healer… but better safe than sorry. He would feel more comfortable about sleeping when she left to go spend time with the gruff Daoine Sidhe, when he had the room to himself.

He regretted wasting the precious bit of magic on the curse a few days ago, especially when it had barely affected the necromancer. For a moment Neil toyed with the idea of using his talent to benefit from someone’s death, to replenish his own magic that way… but it wouldn’t do him any good when he was still trapped here, when he didn’t know what was blocking his ability to shadow walk. No, he needed to break or figure out that spell first, and then go on the offensive.

Though everyone in the knowe – with the exception of the necromancer – had so far kept their hands to themselves, had so far left him alone. The Cait Sidhe had been rather derisive to him, but for the most part the others had gone out of their way to swear to Neil that he was safe at the Foxhole Court, that he wouldn’t be harmed during his stay and seemed to respect his desire for space.

They hadn’t broken out the iron and the knives (other than the necromancer’s threats), hadn’t punched or kicked him. Hadn’t held him down and forced themselves on him, hadn’t made him do things that made his skin crawl and mostly empty stomach rebel to just think about them. He had to swallow hard several times to keep down the potion that Abby had just given him and curled up even more, but some sound must have escaped him because the Tuatha de Danann hurried over to his corner. “Neil? Are you all right? Do you need anything for the pain? Perhaps some tea?”

He wanted to say that he was _fine_ … but there was no way he could pull it off even as a half-truth so instead he sighed. “Some tea would be nice,” he said instead, which avoided the other two questions. Most of his injuries had healed enough that he could ignore them, though he was used to pain between growing up in his father’s knowe and running from the man all those years, then his time spent at Evermore.

“All right.” Abby sounded pleased for some reason, and bustled about to collect various herbs while a small pot of water boiled above one of the various braziers burning around the room. Neil watched her with an unwilling fascination; she was so unlike the few women he’d known during his life – his mother and Lola and the others sworn to his father. Abby with her colorful skirts and kind smiles and soft hands which smelled of astringent herbs. In fact, the women at Foxhole Court were on the whole so unlike what Neil was used to, even if he recognized a core of strength and intelligence to them. Well, Renee made him uncomfortable because there was a darkness to her, a stillness which was all too familiar, but even Allison, the valkyrie, lacked the bloodthirstiness that he was used to, the sharp edge which he waited to cut him sooner rather than later.

Neil watched Abby fuss with the tea then bring it over to him, mindful not to come too close as she crouched down and set it near him on the floor. “Give it a few minutes to cool, and it should help make you feel better until Andrew and Kevin get back with something you can eat.” She was quiet for a moment as he unfurled enough to pull the mug closer. “You could have said something, you know. One of us would have gone to fetch something for you sooner.” She sounded so earnest just then, her expression one of disappointment, of all things. As if she was saddened that he couldn’t confide in her.

He was quiet for a moment as he blew on the tea, which smelled of mint. “Tetsuji figured out about… well, like Kevin did,” he confessed as he focused on the tea.

“So he ensured that you were fed during your… while you were there,” Abby said as she wrapped her arms around herself.

“More or less.” Neil stared at her as he waited for her to realize what he meant; he’d lost weight during his ‘stay’ with the Moriyamas. “I had to ‘behave’ for him, too.” Him and others in one way or another. He closed his eyes as his stomach rebelled again, and set the tea aside.

“He- oh sweetie, that’s _not_ going to happen here, I swear that.” Abby sounded hoarse as she spoke, and he opened his eyes to see her glaring at nothing in particular. “I don’t care what happened before or even about your agreement with Andrew, you’ll have enough to eat without any strings attached if I have to go get the stuff myself!”

Was she real? Neil didn’t understand why she seemed to care so much about him, a stranger. “You don’t know the magic.”

“But Kevin does, and he knows what’s good for him,” she muttered, then smiled when she caught Neil gazing at her in confusion. “He’ll do what I say if he wants any hangover cures from me.”

“And Andrew?” The necromancer with the too-sharp, manic smile yet the often dead eyes, the powerful sense of magic scented with rich, fertile dirt and ivy. The Fae of muddled bloodlines but clear intentions, whom Neil knew best to avoid out of anyone he’d yet met at the knowe.

Abby had the grace to wince as she motioned to the cup of cooling tea. “He seems harsh, but he’s serious about protecting the knowe. Once he realizes that you aren’t a danger, he’ll leave you alone.

But _was_ Andrew right about Neil being a danger to the Foxhole Court? Neil thought about that as he forced himself to drink the tea; it wasn’t from the Dark Road, but it kept him somewhat hydrated, which he needed. The Moriyamas had to be searching for him once again, and if they tracked him down here, how far would they go to demand his return? _Could_ they demand his return? Tetsuji had claimed that Neil’s father had given him to the man, but Neil had never sworn an oath of fealty to the Moriyamas and it was clear that his mother had objected to that act.

His best course of action was to return to the Dark Road as soon as possible and seal the portals, as he’d planned on doing. If Wymack and the others insisted on helping him, they could give him the items he needed to do that before he left then forget all about him. He was done dealing with the Fae, even if a few of them might be decent. _Might._

A sharp longing for the Dark Road filled him as he sipped the tea, made him close his eyes and shiver a little as he thought about the pack, about the crisp, cool water and the tart fruit, the nutty-flavored fish. How quiet it was there, how peaceful, without people coming and going all the time wanting to _talk_ to him and ask annoying questions. How he didn’t have to always be on guard there every second of the day, how he didn’t have to brace himself for the next bit of pain, the next assault.

He longed for Nuit and Ombré and the others to curl up around him so he could get some proper rest, so he could run as far as he wanted without anything holding him back, without any restraints. Just a little longer, he promised himself. One way or another he would return home – either Abby and the others would live up their promises, or he would deal with them as oath-breakers and leave the knowe behind without any remorse.

One of them had to hold the key to the geas trapping him here, and if it took going through the whole knowe to break that spell… Neil would never allow himself to be bound in iron and used like that again. He forced himself to finish the tea then sank down on the pallet once more as he cradled his right arm against his chest, the silver metal oddly warm against his skin as he thought about how he had to be free, how he _needed_ to return to the Dark Road.

He would see if these people lived up to the promises they had made, if Andrew and Kevin returned with food for him and only demanded simple truths from him in return for it, if Wymack intended to let him go within the moon’s cycle. Unfortunately, Neil knew all too well how the Fae could say one thing and intend something else entirely.

All he could do was wait and see, wait for the Foxhole Court to reveal its true nature to him, and endure that revelation.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> Okay, so I'm working on something here with Andrew, I had hoped that it would be resolved in this chapter but then I didn't want to rush things. We'll see if it's answered in the next one. But there's reasons, I promise. 
> 
> An answer or two here, though not an answer to everything (or complete answers). 
> 
> What was I going to say???
> 
> Ah... yes, Kevin's comments on the Fae bloodlines. I just... how DO the bloodlines come about? I mean, when you think about it, with the main three progenitors (well, two with the queens).... Hmm, yes.
> 
> And the queens. You see a lot of different takes on what the queens look like, but I guess for Titania I'm sorta stuck on the one take that Charles Vess did for her for Sandman, with the black hair and pale skin. And of course I'm going with what I did here for Maeb for various reasons. 
> 
> Uhm, is that it? Feel free to ask/point out anything else.
> 
> Again, no set posting schedule for the next few weeks since things are going to be busy.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always greatly appreciated!  
> *******


	4. Help part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! The last two weeks have been crazy and the next one's still going to be really busy, but for now, an update! I hope it's semi-decent.
> 
> And keep in mind this is more building to something with Andrew and you'll get answers about what's going on with him at the end. HONEST. Bear with it.
> 
> (and hopefully there aren't too many mistakes in this)  
> *******

*******

While Kevin finished working on the teleportation spell, Andrew figured he’d go get a little more information out of ‘Neil’; he’d done a bit of research on the Dark Road and there _might_ be a good reason why Kevin was so worried about their upcoming sojourn. Leaving his friend in Bee’s lab, Andrew headed to Abby’s instead, and felt a flash of annoyance when he saw Nicky lounging on the wall near the door to the healer’s workroom.

“No,” he told his cousin, unwilling to deal with him just then.

“But I didn’t even say anything!” Nicky pushed away from the wall and folded his arms over his chest; he was dressed in jeans and a tight bright red t-shirt, as if he’d just come from outside of the knowe.

“I prefer it that way, saves me from hearing anything stupid. Now go away.” Andrew gave him a warning look and pointed down the hallway.

“Dammit, Andrew, why does everything have to be a battle with you?” Nicky rubbed his eyes for a moment then shook his head. “I’ve been checking things out on the campus, and so far, I haven’t noticed anyone new or suspicious.”

What the hell. Andrew stared at the moron while the spirits took to spiraling around Nicky, enough to make Nicky press back against the wall.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Just how stupid are you?” Andrew asked as he forced the spirits to settle.

Nicky glared at him as if offended. “ _What_? Why do you have to be like that, I know the area, I-“

“You don’t know the _Moriyamas_ ,” Andrew told him as he struggled to control his temper, to keep the spirits from reacting as well. “You don’t know these people when they’re after something they truly want.” Like a stubborn, closed-mouth Fae who could shift the power between the Courts forever into their favor. A stubborn, closed-mouth Fae who was covered in scars and bruises, and refused to allow anyone to touch him.

For a moment Nicky appeared all defiant, and then his shoulders slumped a little. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Right,” Andrew scoffed as he stepped toward the door. “Who’s the one going on about how he’s a lover and not a fighter?” When the moron winced, Andrew had one of the spirits push him down the hall. “Stay in the damn knowe unless one of the other pests goes outside with you.”

“Wait, is it true?” Andrew ignored the question and had the door open before Nicky spoke again. “Are you really going to the Dark Road?”

“Go away,” he told his cousin.

“Aw, come on, can’t I see the cutie at least? I’m the only one who hasn’t seen the cutie! I wanna- dammit, _stop it_ , leave me- they’re _groping_ me, Andrew! These aren’t the things I want groping-“

Andrew slammed the door shut behind him to cut off Nicky’s complaints, done with Nicky for another day (month) or two. He found Abby staring at him and gave her a bland look, which made her arch an eyebrow before she returned to grinding up some sharp-smelling herb.

Neil was awake and reading a book that Abby or someone else must have fetched him, tucked into the corner as always. He spotted Andrew and set the book aside, his face still as gaunt as the day before but large eyes a little brighter, so perhaps Abby had managed to get a potion or two down his throat.

“What do you want?” Neil asked as he drew in a little, all blue eyes intent on Andrew and right arm braced over his knobby knees; he had long legs for all that he wasn’t much bigger than Andrew.

“Ah, ah,” Andrew chided as he crouched down close enough to make Neil flinch but still out of arm’s reach. “I’m asking the questions here.”

Neil gave him a sneer, pure defiance despite being cornered and weak. In spite of himself, Andrew felt a faint pulse of interest, of amusement, which he pushed back deep down inside; the shadow walker was a threat and a runner, an improbable little bunny with fangs and claws despite the bright, soft fluffy coat and big eyes and ears. “I don’t see any food so I don’t have to _answer_ anything.”

“Tsk, see, that’s where you’re wrong,” Andrew informed him. “You’re going to give up some information if you want me to bring anything back.” Slowly and with deliberate care, he reached out to grasp the loose sleeve of Neil’s right arm, which covered most of the gauntlet; Neil went still and watched him like a wary cat trying to decide if it should flee or lash out with its claws while he tugged on what appeared to be an old shirt of Aaron’s. Despite his brother being a couple of inches shorter than Neil, Aaron – and definitely Andrew – had more muscle mass than the lean Fae so it hung from Neil’s slighter frame. “Unless you like being emaciated.” Sharp wrist bones peeked out at the end of the gauntlet to prove his point; he was quick to release the soft material when Neil drew in a shaky breath and rocked back on his heels to put some space between them.

Things were quiet for a moment before Neil let out that breath with a deliberate slowness. “What do you want to know?” He sounded tired and tucked himself even more into the corner, curled up much like a sleeping cat in a ball – a cat or a fox, considering the color of his hair.

“Kevin is going to use a nearby portal to get to the Dark Road, but once we reach it, I don’t want us wasting time looking for the shit you need.” Andrew tapped his fingers onto his arm bands. “What do we fetch and how do we find it?”

Neil chewed on his full bottom lip and cocked his head to the side as he seemed to think about the question. “That would be the _Aracynth_ portal,” he said, the word having no meaning to Andrew and sounding like old Fae. “You’ll need to go off the Road-“

“I thought that was a bad idea.”

Andrew was glared at for the interruption. “You’re not going to find any food or water on the Dark Road,” Neil told him with narrowed eyes as his left hand wrapped around the gauntlet. “Go east of the portal and there’s a stream not too far away, a stream and some trees. Bring me back fruit and water.”

“Fruit and water? That’s all?” Andrew would have to trust it wasn’t a trap, since Neil would starve to death otherwise.

“It’ll be more than enough if I’m just here until the next _quarter_ moon, right?” The challenge was back in Neil’s voice, the glint of defiance in his eyes.

“Maybe you’re a rabbit after all,” Andrew mocked, and felt some satisfaction when heat flooded the Fae’s cheeks. “Try not to miss me while I’m gone,” he said as he stood up.

“As much as I don’t miss an iron blade shoved beneath my skin,” Neil muttered as he tugged a blanket up to his chin.

Andrew mock-gasped as he turned toward Abby, who had been watching their interaction like the mother-hen she was. “Did you hear that? He’s going to miss me _so much_. Be sure to dry his tears and keep him company so he’s not _that_ inconsolable.”

Abby’s lips twitched as if she wanted to smile while behind them, Neil mumbled something that sounded particularly vicious in French. “I’ve something that works well for delusions, but I’m not even going to bother. Good luck,” she wished him, so he gave her a two-fingered salute by way of ‘goodbye’ as he left the lab.

Kevin was waiting for him in the front courtyard, along with Wymack and Dan; there was a hint of vodka on the coward’s breath, but other than that, Kevin seemed all right. Wymack nodded to Andrew and handed him his staff along with a couple of empty canteens and empty cloth bags, while the pouches on Kevin’s belt appeared full and he was wearing his sword.

“You two sure you don’t want anyone else to go with you?” Wymack asked, a worried frown adding lines to his already unpleasant visage.

Kevin seemed to debate the offer for a couple of seconds before he shook his head. “No, it’s best that we do it ourselves. The little I’ve uncovered about the shadow wolves is that there’s less chance of attracting their attention if you’re quiet and in smaller groups – I think that’s how Neil survived on the Dark Road for so long.”

“If you say so. Just be careful and come back, _both_ of you,” Wymack stressed.

“Though if you get some pointy ears and big, bright eyes while you’re there, it might be an improvement,” Dan teased as she grinned at them. “Just saying.”

Andrew barely resisted the urge to have the spirits shove her into a wall for that comment, just _barely_. “And now I’m understanding why our unwanted guest stayed on the Dark Road for how many years, away from bothersome people. I’m considering it myself.”

Kevin tugged him away while Dan gave him a rude gesture. “Come on, let’s get this over with,” the coward said while he pulled out a large green charm stone and a smaller white one. “So, what did Neil tell you?”

“Just that we should be hitting the Dark Road by some Aracynth portal and that we need to get off the Road and go east, where we’ll find water and some fruit trees.”

“ _Aracynth_ ,” Kevin corrected him. “Okay, he’s right about that, though east?” He appeared puzzled for a moment. “We’ll figure it out.” Once they were standing on a patch of grass, he handed Andrew the smaller stone. “Keep this on you, it’ll help anchor you in the Dark Road as long as the teleportation spell lasts.” Once Andrew tucked the stone into the front right pocket of his jeans, Kevin took a deep breath as if to steady himself, then chanted something that made the larger stone burn bright for several seconds. Andrew scowled at that, displeased at having his sight affected without warning, and then suffered a sense of vertigo on top of it as the 'world' spun around him for several unpleasant seconds.

When everything settled, they were standing by a small pile of stones along a black path in a world devoid of colors except for grey, greyer and black, it seemed. Grey sky, grey grass, grey trees in the distance, black road stretching before and behind them. "Gotta love the color scheme," Andrew remarked as he fought down the urge to throw up.

Kevin appeared to be struggling with the same impulse as he swiped a trembling hand along his mouth. "It's... it's just like the stories said it would be." He looked around with wide eyes at the quiet world; Andrew didn't hear any birds or insects, didn't hear any background noise of planes or engines like in the 'real' world or of people moving about in the knowes. Just the faint rustle of grass and leaves, the tiniest of murmurs.

What disturbed him the most was that he couldn't sense any dead, that the spirits hadn't come along with him. Andrew still had his staff and his knives and his magic, had the spells that he'd learned and the energy he could pull up from the earth, but he felt strangely bereft without the spirits and the faint murmur of their voices in his head. "Where's east?" he asked as he twirled the staff about a couple of times. "Let's get the stuff for Neil and then leave."

"Give me a moment," Kevin grumbled as he dug about in his left pouch for a moment. "All that effort to get here and you rush me."

"Thought you were frightened of this place."

"Well, yeah." Kevin glanced around them even as his scarred hand continued to search for something. "A lot of people never come back from here, and there's the shadow wolves." He shivered a little while his right hand fell to the hilt of his sword. "But still, it's the Dark Road."

"Whatever. East."

Kevin sighed in exasperation but seemed to find the charm he'd been looking for, and after mumbling some sort of incantation, peered back and forth toward the left and the charm a few times before giving a dubious shrug and heading in that direction.

"Oh how my faith in you is endless and without reserve," Andrew said without any inflection as he followed, the staff twirled about in his hands once again.

"It's the _Dark Road_ ," Kevin stressed as they left the black path. "It's not... it's not natural."

Yet Neil had lived here for how long? Perhaps that would be one of Andrew's questions when they got back. He mused over a potential list f them (certain that Kevin would have some of his own), and was 'pleased' to note that Neil had been correct in that it wasn't too far from the road before they came across a stream of water and some trees.

Unfortunately, he hadn't mentioned a couple of Fae dressed in Evermore colors.

If it wasn't for the fact that they reacted in evident surprise upon seeing Kevin and him, their eyes going wide and the Merrow's thin lips pulling back to show off his sharp teeth a moment later, Andrew would think it had been a trap. But it took a moment too long for them to draw their weapons, for them to ready any spells or curses, and that was a moment too long for them.

Andrew charged forward with his staff spinning fast to block anything cast at him, and managed to knock the Merrow back a couple of feet. Behind him, Kevin exchanged spells with the Rakshasas, whom he seemed to know, judging from the rather personal insults thrown in here and there.

"Where is he?" the Merrow demanded as he dodged a blow that should have caved in his skull. “Where’s the shadow walker?”

“Fuck you,” Andrew told him as he drew energy from the greyish earth beneath him to channel a spell through his body and the staff so when he did manage to hit the bastard, it sent him flying backwards with what had to be some broken ribs. However, when he went to finish him off, he noticed that Kevin was still fighting the Rakshasas, who seemed to be a better swordsman than him.

The stupid shit was fighting him with a sword when he should have cursed his ass already.

Andrew grit his teeth together as he broke up whatever noble crap was going on by casting the damn curse himself. The Rakshasas choked off a yell as he tumbled to the ground, his muscles twitching from the magic that had seized them up while Kevin glared at Andrew.

“What the hell?” Kevin’s sword wavered as if he was uncertain as if what to do with it, and then it jerked back up as he gazed behind Andrew. That was all the warning Andrew had to raise his staff in time, the one iron-tipped end pointed to help deflect the spell thrown his way.

Well, deflect _most_ of the spell.

Blood filled Andrew’s mouth as he bit into his tongue from the pain sizzling through his body, through his _veins_ , from whatever the hell the spell or curse the bastard Merrow had lobbed his way. Dammit, he should have slit the Fae’s throat before going to help Kevin, but hindsight was perfect, wasn’t it? He assumed the dark spots moving on the horizon were an aftereffects of the spell, of the pain which almost knocked him to his knees, until he heard the Rakshasas scream and Kevin spit out a string of curses – _finally_.

It took him a moment to realize the dark blurs were animals, to make out the distinct shapes as they swarmed the Merrow as well, to catch a glimpse of bright white teeth and shining black eyes. They took the two Fae down in seconds, tore them apart as if they were small game instead of large men, and when Andrew attempted to throw a curse their way (another one to lock up their muscles), it had no effect.

“Shadow wolves,” Kevin said in an oddly reverent awe when Andrew managed to stumble over to him with his staff clutched in his hands, his voice hoarse and expression bleak.

Somehow, Andrew had figured that out already. “How do you kill them?” All the coward did was give him a look as if Andrew had asked a ridiculous question and shook his head as he lowered his sword. Wonderful.

A few of the ferocious creatures left off feeding on the Merrow to stalk toward Andrew and Kevin on long, spindly legs, their steps appearing prancing in nature; they seemed almost too delicate to be a threat with their slim, graceful bodies but like most Fae things, their beauty was a terrible illusion, was a glamour – and that beauty correlated to their deadliness. For a brief moment, Andrew wondered what that meant for Neil, who had stayed too long on the Dark Road, who had eaten of its food and been changed by the place.

He forced all thoughts of the shadow walker aside the same time he pushed Kevin behind him and bared his teeth at the fancy mutts, his staff held in front of him in his right hand; perhaps spells didn’t work on them, but _iron_ should.

A couple of the wolves took to circling around them while the other two approached head on, which made Kevin start in on his ‘Oberon’s blood’ shit, but before Andrew could swing at them, the largest of the wolves paused and seemed to sniff at the air. The other three stopped as well, while the rest of the wolves (pack?) ceased their meal long enough to look over at Andrew and Kevin with an eerie unity that made Andrew wonder just how fucking intelligent the mutts were, if there was some sort of pack mindset at work. Then the largest wolf made a huffing sound while staring at him before turning around in a flowing motion to go back to the Merrow. The wolf which had been at his side stood still and stared at Andrew a little longer while the other two went over to the Rakshasas, but after a few seconds it returned to the ‘feast’ with the rest of the pack and left Andrew and Kevin alone.

What. The. _Fuck_.

Andrew watched the creatures with narrowed eyes for a couple of seconds before he shrugged and reached back with his left hand to grab hold of Kevin’s shirt. “Come on.” They were getting what they needed for a certain runner who better be _damn_ grateful and then they were getting the hell out of there – Andrew was beginning to understand why people said ‘the Dark Road’ in the same manner as ‘ _no_ fucking way in _any_ hell’.

“I… Oberon’s blood… they don’t _do_ that, Andrew! It’s not… they _don’t_. We should be _dead_ ,” Kevin babbled as he stumbled forward. “ _Dead_!”

“If you don’t shut up, you will be,” Andrew promised with a manic grin. “Get the fruit, I’ll grab the water.” Kevin was taller and could always go up a tree if the damn mutts changed their mind.

“ _Dead_ ,” Kevin whispered, his face pale and hands trembling as he fumbled with the bags Andrew threw at him, but he hurried to pick the fruit while Andrew filled the flasks with the ice-cold water, his attention divided between watching the coward and the shadow wolves. The creatures yipped and made rough coughing barks as they finished off the two Fae, the sound of bones being crunched upon making Kevin gag a little.

Andrew found it curious that he couldn’t sense the spirits of the newly dead Fae anywhere, and that Neil knew the eating habits of the shadow wolves – he _supposed_ that maybe the shadow walker could have guessed that the creatures would crack the bones, but he didn’t believe in coincidence. Another question had just been added to the list.

At least the mutts had kept the Fae from running back to the Moriyamas and letting Tetsuji know that Kevin was harvesting fruit from the Dark Road, which would be a sure sign that the Foxhole Court was harbouring a certain fugitive.

The canteens filled, Andrew went over to help Kevin with the fruit so they could get the hell back to the knowe as quickly as possible. They got enough for two bags, uncertain how long the fruit would keep, and then skirted past the lounging wolves which watched them with those eerie black eyes. The two largest ones got up and followed them back to the road, never coming close enough to be considered a threat but making it clear that they were watching Andrew and Kevin.

Kevin looked ready to shit himself as he stared at the two mutts. “That’s not… they _never_ do that! They never _let_ their prey get away!”

“Just take us back home before they correct the situation,” Andrew told the pain in the ass as he continued to put himself between Kevin and the wolves. “All this grey is giving me a headache.”

That startled a weak laugh out of Kevin before he did something with the teleportation charm, and there was more of the ‘wonderful’ sense of nausea and upheaval before the courtyard of the Foxhole Court reformed around Andrew. He blinked in surprise to realize that it was evening there when they’d left the knowe in the late morning, and found a smiling Renee and a scowling Aaron hanging out on the benches near the one fountain.

“Damn, you weren’t killed after all,” Aaron muttered as he stood up and stalked away. Meanwhile, Renee gave the two of them a slight nod as her smile strengthened.

“He was worried about you when a couple of hours passed and you hadn’t returned.”

Andrew scoffed at that while he felt a sense of relief as his spirits whirled around him, excited about his ‘return’. “Probably hoped he would get the car if I was dead.”

“Hmm,” Renee hummed as she gave a pointed glance at the canteens slung over his left shoulder and then the full bags held clenched in Kevin’s hands. “I see you were successful?”

“Yes.” Kevin’s voice was still a bit strained, his face still a bit drained of blood and covered in sweat from the encounter with the shadow wolves, but he managed a haughty look. “We held up _our_ end of the bargain.”

Ah, someone wanted some answers, it seemed. Well, Andrew wouldn’t object since he had a few (more than a few) questions of his own, and having a curse sizzle his blood made him a bit thirsty for his ‘happy juice’. Time to go see Abby and someone who _better_ be in a talkative mood, if they knew what was good for them.

Renee tagged along for some reason, and they ran into Nicky along the way to Abby's lab. "Andrew! You made it back!" Nicky grinned, his expression one of relief, and he held out his arms as if to give Andrew a hug - at least, until a spirit shoved him back.

"Yes, now go away." Why were people so surprised to see him? Okay, so the wolves had been a bit creepy and Andrew would be fine with never returning to the Dark Road, but it he'd had worse missions. Dealing with the Stonewood knowe and the aggravating fools who lived there ranked at the top of his list, for example - Fae-eating wolves were much preferred to _that_ bunch.

"Maybe you should try eating some of the stuff you brought back, see if it changes you for the better," Nicky mumbled, then yelped when a spirit tugged on his hair. "I was joking!" he protested as he batted at the air around him. "So you're going to feed him now right? _Neil_ , huh?" He appeared a bit too hopeful for some reason. "Can I tag along?" When Andrew gave him a flat look, he took to pouting. "Aw come on, I still haven't seen him! Aaron has!"

"Aaron's not quite as stupid as you," Andrew informed his cousin. "Or as much of a pervert. Now go away, it's your last warning."

"I think you just like keeping all the good ones for yourself," Nicky said with an exaggerated sniff. When Andrew made a point to stop and look at him, his cousin's face became flushed and he held up his hands as if to ward off a blow or spell before he spun around to run in the opposite direction.

"Too bad we couldn't have brought one of the mutts back with us," Andrew commented. "They could be useful."

Now it was Kevin's turn to become flustered. "Not amusing," he said, his voice rough once more. "They could easily decimate a knowe if they were set loose in one."

Hmm, what a lovely thought.

"Mutt?" Renee gave them a curious look as she fussed with the full skirt of her pale pink and cream dress. "Do you mean a shadow wolf?" She merely blinked when Kevin nodded in quick, jerky motions. "Oh my, it sounds like you had an exciting time."

"They were better company than the Evermore assholes," Andrew remarked as they reached the hallway leading to Abby's lab. "Which the mutts found tasty."

"Hmm. Evermore probably feeds its people well, being a wealthy knowe," she remarked in an even, polite tone, much like one discussing the weather or some other bland topic. "I'm sure that helps toward imparting them a nice flavour."

Andrew turned his head to give her a searching look, once again left wondering just what she was, wondering about that hint of darkness buried deep inside of her, past that thick veneer of peace and placidness and banal smiles and everything else that made him want to slip free a knife and skin away such a _disgusting_ exterior. Skin away the lies until he reached the true core of Renee Walker. A hint of that darkness floated to the surface as if Renee guessed his thoughts at the moment and taunted him to do just that.

Fortunately for her, they'd reached Abby's lab and he already had a challenge in front of him to deal with for the time being, so he gave her a slight nod which she returned with one of her own. Kevin opened the door and stumbled into the large room, quick to make his way over to the healer who gave him a hug and murmured something into his hair as he rested his head upon her shoulder.

Wymack nodded to Andrew, something like relief on his face. "So even the Dark Road can't kill you, nice to know."

"Sorry to disappoint you, old man." He set the canteens on the nearest table where, after Abby patted him on the back a couple of times, Kevin placed the bags of fruit down with care. "You might find it of interest that there were some Moriyama men waiting for us when we got there."

Wymack's dark eyes flickered over to the far corner, toward Neil in his little nest, but Andrew shook his head and continued before the man could speak. "They were surprised to see us and wanted to know where our guest was, so I'm willing to bet that Tetsuji has them stationed near a few portals in case someone's grabbed what he thinks is _his_ property and figured out what the idiot has done to himself."

That prompted a scoff from the Daoine Sidhe. "You have to hand it to the sadistic prick, he's clever. Can't give him much more than that, but he is clever." Wymack's jaw worked as if he wanted to say a hell of a lot more than that, but he visibly pushed down the anger. "I assume you took care of them?" he asked as he motioned toward the staff which Andrew had set against the table.

Kevin stirred at the question and shook his head, his right hand wrapped tight around the hilt of his sword. "No, not really. A pack of shadow wolves came and... well, the men are gone." One only had to take in the ashen tone to his skin to figure out what the 'are gone' meant.

Wymack's lips pressed into a thin line while a gasp slipped free from Abby. “Huh, always did like dogs,” Wymack said, which earned him a smack on the arm from the healer. “What? They were Moriyama bas-ow!” He took a step back while Abby glared at him. “I’m just saying!”

“Behave,” she warned before she stepped closer to the table. “Go fetch me a mug while I see what they brought back.”

“Fine.” He went over to one of the shelves while she opened a bag, and the scent of something tart filled the room; Andrew hadn’t noticed any strong scents while on the Dark Road, but his nose itched from the tanginess of the grey fruit as Abby pulled out a couple of them.

She rinsed them off in a nearby sink before she set them in a small bowl, and was careful to pour some of the water into the mug without spilling any. Then she carried the bowl and the mug, along with a cloth napkin, over to the corner, where Neil was sitting with his back tucked against the wall, his strange eyes reflecting the light through the strands of his auburn hair.

He didn’t say anything as Abby set the mug and the bowl down, then the napkin. “Andrew and Kevin brought these back for you,” she told him, as if he couldn’t figure it out with the way they followed behind her. Neil paused only a moment to glance at Andrew before he moved, much like a snake uncoiling, and then he sat back with the bowl in his lap.

Huh, the rabbit was _fast_.

Andrew sank back on his heels to watch as Neil devoured the fruit like a – no, he _was_ a ravenous beast. A beast complete with small sharp teeth, from the glimpses that Andrew caught now and then as Neil gnawed the flesh from the grey fruit, as he left nothing but hard black stones which were dropped back into the bowl. Something stirred inside of Andrew to see the shadow walker lick his fingers with a pale pink tongue, to see something akin to pleasure flicker across the striking face in front of him.

Done eating, Neil wiped his hands clean and picked up the mug, which he sipped from as he eyed Andrew and Kevin with evident distrust. “You managed to get it.”

“Yes, imagine that, we kept our word,” Andrew drawled with a grin. “Are you going to keep yours?”

Neil’s brows drew together a little as he had another sip of water, which he seemed to hold in his mouth as if to prevent from speaking for a few seconds. “What do you want to know?”

Kevin took immediate advantage of the opportunity. “Where did you get Maeb’s gauntlet?” He leaned forward a little, his attention focused on Neil’s right wrist. “Did you steal it from Tetsuji or did you find it on the Dark Road?”

The question made Neil frown as he lowered the mug from his lips. “I found it,” he said as he ran the fingers of his left hand along the engraved silver. “On the Dark Road.”

“Really?” Kevin appeared excited about that and leaned even closer, which made Neil press back more into the wall. “Where?” However, all the Fae did was give Andrew a deliberate look while he sipped some more water.

“Really? Tit for tat for the kitty-cat?” he taunted, annoyed at how Neil was twisting things already when Andrew had put up with damn shadow wolves and Moriyama assholes, and so willing to get a little dig in where he could in return. Besides, if someone was so sensitive about his appearance, he shouldn’t have done something stupid like eat weird magical food.

Andrew could tell the nickname bothered Neil, but the shadow walker’s expression quickly smoothed out to a bland expression. “Do you truly intend to allow me to leave at the next quarter moon, with no geas or bindings on me?”

Ah, someone was careful how they had phrased that, and suspicious as hell – Andrew approved. “Yes,” he answered, while Abby and Kevin nodded. “You’ll be free to run back home to your precious Dark Road, where the Moriyamas are waiting for you,” he told him, and noticed that Neil didn’t seem either too worried about that or surprised. “Nice little weakness you have there,” he added while pointing to the bowl filled with fruit stones, to which Neil merely shrugged.

What a surprise, someone didn’t believe in giving anything away for free. “ _Where_ did you find the gauntlet?” Kevin asked, much like a dog with a bone.

Neil sighed as he set the half-finished mug of water aside with care of its contents and wrapped the fingers of his left hand around his silver-clad right wrist. “In a cache of items tucked away in a space between the roots of a tree,” he said, his tone bored but his fingers a little too tight around the gauntlet and his eyes a little too focused on the bowl on front of him; Andrew had the feeling that he was choosing his answers with care and there would be a set limit about to run out very soon – _Neil_ was a pureblood, after all, child of a Firstborn and grandchild of Firstborns, a true and _proper_ Fae.

Andrew wanted to throttle him, wanted to… wanted....

“Dammit, Minyard, calm the spooks down before they trash the place again!” Wymack yelled at him when the spirits took to whirling about the lab in reaction to his inner turmoil, while Kevin glared at him for interrupting his ‘question time’, Abby moved as if to shield Neil and Neil cocked his head to the side to study Andrew.

Andrew placated the spirits with a simple wave of his hand, which made Neil’s eyes narrow. “So, your turn again,” he told the other Fae, who seemed to think on the second question for a few seconds.

“ _Why_ are you letting me go?” Neil asked as his fingers twisted around his wrist in a clear sign of anxiousness; so far he was using his ‘truths’ to establish the extent of his captivity and in return showed just how little he trusted them. Andrew found it telling that he hadn’t asked yet whom it was that he’d been bound to, and took it to mean Neil realized that he wouldn’t be told – that Andrew knew it would be handing over a death sentence to someone so distrusting. If his suspicion was correct, that made Neil passably intelligent and more than passably ruthless when it came to surviving. “You could make an alliance with the Moriyamas by returning me to them, or barter me to another court or….” Neil shook his head and closed his eyes. “Why let me go?”

Andrew answered first while Abby let out a low moan as if in pain and Wymack cursed beneath his breath. “For me? Because you’re too much of a pain in the ass,” he told Neil when the shadow walker opened his eyes to look at him. “Best for you to run away before you bring trouble to our door.” Neil considered that for a moment then nodded.

“I told you, you stubborn fool, that this is a sanctuary,” Wymack was quick to add. “You’re safe here, and the Foxhole Court doesn’t turn away anyone in need. We’re only keeping you long enough for you to heal and rest up.”

Neil didn't appear as if he believed in any of that, but Abby gave him a kind smile and nodded. "It's the truth, I promise you that. You have a place here if you want to stay, but if you don't then at least you'll be able to stand on your own and know that you have friends here."

For a moment it looked as if Neil was going to dispute that last part, was going to say something mocking judging from the bitter twist to his lips and the way his eyes narrowed, then he bowed his head and gave it a slight shake. Judging that it was another round in the 'question' game, Andrew jumped in rather than allow Kevin to ask another stupid question about some boring gauntlet. "That's if he doesn't already have friends," Andrew said. "Do you? Did you swear anything to the Moriyamas or anyone else?" That's what he wanted to know, if there was a threat in their midst.

Kevin scowled at him, clearly upset about being interrupted, but Neil raised his head to give Andrew a disgusted look. "The only thing I've sworn to the Moriyamas is to see them dead in the most painful manner possible," he declared through gritted teeth. "My father as well, as hopeless a cause as that is." He let go of his wrist to make an abortive jerk at his chest. "You think I'm going to sign myself up for centuries of... of this? For them to-" His breathing sped up as his eyes closed tight and his lips pressed together, as his head shook again fast enough for his curls to fly through the air; he appeared as if he was attempting to clear his mind of unwanted images just then, unwanted memories as his hands rose in front of him to push things away - to push people away. "No, damn you!"

"Neil? Neil, it's okay!" Abby shifted forward to assure him, but was yanked back by both Wymack and Kevin when there was the scent of roses and ivy in the air, as Neil's hands flailed about with no obvious spells cast and the gauntlet flowed like liquid silver to cover his right hand and two fingers once more; Kevin watched on in rapt fascination and echoed Abby's movements until Andrew clicked his tongue in disgust and shoved him hard enough to make the moron tumbled backward.

"Stay," he told Kevin with a flat look to back up the command, before he turned his attention to Neil, who still sat there with his hands held up as if expecting an attack. So Andrew gave him one – he flicked a mild jinx in the direction of the idiot’s face.

Neil flinched at the magic but nothing happened – at least, his skin didn’t break out in a nasty rash, which always pissed off Aaron and freaked out Nicky – so Andrew assumed that the gauntlet must have stopped the spell, but it seemed to snapped the Fae out of his little hissy-fit. “You’re… you’re an asshole,” Neil muttered as he lowered his arms in a tentative manner as if uncertain if that was a safe thing to do.

Andrew smiled at the insult, which was true.  “Yes, I am, and I think you’ve got something wrong with your head if you like the Dark Road so much, but you made a valid point. Hmm, now we’re matched, three questions each, right?” He bared his teeth in a manner that just might, just _might_ , be considered an amused grin when Neil’s cheeks grew flushed and his eyes brightened in anger.

“That wasn’t my question, may the shadows damn you,” Neil muttered as his hands clenched into fists, the silver bending easily over the fingers on his right hand.

“Then someone needs to watch his tongue better, doesn’t he?”

“I’m not the one who uses it to twist things around, am I?” Neil made to lean forward as if to get in Andrew’s face, then seemed to think better of it, seemed to glance at Kevin and Wymack and then Andrew’s hands before sinking back against the wall. “No wonder you were so willing to suggest this… this _game_.”

While Andrew ‘smiled’ some more, Kevin risked scooting forward enough until he sat beside Andrew once more. “Then how about another round between you and I?”

Before Andrew could say anything, Neil shook his head. “No, three fruit so three questions. I’m done for now.”

“Yes, he needs to rest so you’ll leave him be,” Abby agreed as she reached for the bowl with an exaggerated slowness as if to not disturb Neil. “I’ll brew you some tea with the water they brought back, how about that? Something that’ll make you feel better.” She offered him a smile until Neil gave her a nod in return, his lips twitching a little as if he was trying to return the expression but was uncertain on how to do it.

Wymack frowned upon seeing that and grabbed Kevin by the upper right arm to haul him onto his feet. “You heard her, time for you to get your asses out of here. Go grab something to eat yourselves and then rest, you deserve it. Just _go_.”

“But-“

“What part of ‘just go’ do I need to explain to you?” Wymack glared at Kevin as he shoved him toward the door. “You move your maggot feet and get the hell out of here!”

“Actually, maggots don’t have feet,” Andrew was kind enough to explain while he had one of the spirits grab a prepared bottle of his potion from one of the shelves in the workroom. “I’m currently working on a spell to turn people into one, just another tweak or two and I’ll be ready to test it on Seth. Then you can see for yourself.”

Wymack gave him a dirty look over his shoulder as he ignored Kevin’s protests about ‘just one more question, dammit!’. “You couldn’t have been gone a little longer?”

“You know you miss us.” Andrew had the spirits shove the old man aside to free Kevin right before they reached the door. “Be sure to let us know the next time our guest is hungry,” he called out to Abby. “I can’t wait for another chance to get to know him a little better.”

He thought he heard Neil swear something in old Fae right before Wymack slammed the door shut behind them, and then Kevin was groaning something about needing a drink. Oh, what a wonderful idea; Andrew followed his friend, for a short while willing to forget about mysterious Fae with too many secrets and lethal wolves and everything else.

For a short while.

*******

“It’s all right, no one here’s going to bother you.”

Neil frowned at the Tylwyth Teg – Matt, the Fae wanted to be called ‘Matt’ – and tugged at the overlarge hood of the brown tunic he’d been given to wear; Abby had noticed that he hadn’t felt comfortable in some of the odd clothes she’d leant him, the ‘jeans’ and ‘t-shirts’ and so forth, that he preferred the tunics and jerkins and things he’d always worn. Though she apologized that she couldn’t find anything in his size and he felt it was foolish to make the knowe’s Brownies alter the clothes for him when he wouldn’t wear them for that long. “I’m fine,” he told the man, which was true enough; his wounds were mostly healed – the ones caused by iron would take a little longer – and he was regaining his strength now that he was fed a steady diet of fruit and water from the Dark Road without being beaten all of the time. Abby had discovered that he could stomach some herbs mixed in with the water or simple foods eaten with the fruit, but his main nutrition came from the Dark Road, it seemed, a sign that he was forever tied to that domain.

He _was_ fine with that, even if the healer and everyone else acted as if it was a terrible curse. All he wanted was for the quarter moon to return so the geas would fade away and he could slip through the shadows and return _home_.

The halfway mark had almost been reached, and Abby had declared that he could leave her workroom, that it would do him some good to go out in the knowe, to stretch his limbs and ‘get some exercise’. She had also said something about ‘making friends’, which had caused him to stare at her in disbelief for several seconds until she sighed and shook her head, but here he was, being led around the knowe by Matt. He’d met the Tylwyth Teg a few times before and the young man had always been mindful around him, had been friendly yet respectful, so Neil pushed down the nagging sense of fear he felt at having someone so much taller and bigger near him, at the thought of how easily Matt could shove him against the wall and- no. _No_.

Neil couldn’t escape through the shadows but he still had his father’s magic inside of him, could kill Matt with a simple touch. As long as no one here in the Foxhole Court harmed him, he wouldn’t use it (wouldn’t use it _again_ ) out of respect for Abby, but he refused to _ever_ be touched or used like that again.

So far everyone here were living up to their promises ( _so far_ ), but Neil would remain on guard. There were the geas, after all. He wasn’t free until they were gone and he was back on the Dark Road… but the Foxhole Court had kept its promises. So far.

“Well, let me know if you get tired or anything,” Matt told him, his expression worried as he held out his right hand a little as if to steady Neil, but stopped short of actually touching. The tall Fae was dressed in those ‘jeans’ and a plain dark blue t-shirt which showed off a muscular body well-suited for fighting, yet Neil got a peaceful sense from the man, enhanced by his wide smile and the gleam in his dark brown eyes, by faint the scent of wood smoke and cinnamon which clung to him. “Or if the light’s too much for you.” Matt frowned a little at that. “Huh, maybe some sunglasses would help?”

“I should be all right.” Neil had been out in the mortal world during the day a few times, and while the light bothered him a bit, he adjusted soon enough. “So this is the Foxhole Court?” He’d heard a little about the knowe, but mainly about its neutrality.

Matt beamed with pride as he gestured around the corridor they were walking down, to the plain woodwork polished with enough effort until it gleamed, the simple tapestries and the earth-toned rugs on the floor. It was evident that the knowe was tended to with care and that it favored comfort and practicality over extravagance, from the little Neil had seen of it. That it was in stark contrast to his father’s knowe – to Baiting’s End and Evermore.

That was a good thing, in his mind. Elaborate woodwork, exquisite tapestries of silk and velvet and threads made out of precious metals, sparkling lights composed of myriad crystals and gemstones… all that blatant display of power didn’t mask the sadism and horror at the heart of those knowes.

Not that Neil had seen much more than his cell at Evermore during his last visit there.

“Hey, you all right?” Matt asked, the concern in his deep voice enough to startle Neil from his voice – he was so unused to hearing that emotion. Even Jean had masked it rather than leave an opening for the others at Evermore to use against him.

Jean… Neil hoped that the Leannan Sidhe was all right… well, as all right as he could be, considering Riko and the others. That Jean hadn’t been blamed for Neil escaping.

“I’m fine,” Neil told Matt. “So, have you been here for long? In the knowe?” he asked as he ran his fingers along the gauntlet; it comforted him to know that it was there, that he had its protection. Just like Kevin, he had questions about the item, about why it had saved him that day back at Evermore yet precious little answers (which didn’t please Kevin), but he took a lot of comfort in the protection it provided – especially while he was ‘stuck’ in the Foxhole Court.

Matt appeared to realize that he was trying to change the subject but allowed it with a slight grin. “Not as long as some of the others, but for a few decades.” His thick black brows drew together as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Ah, let’s see… since the early 40’s? Yeah, it was around then. Wymack picked me to help out because of the war and all.”

Neil frowned at that while his left forefinger traced an elegant scroll that trailed all around his wrist. “Ah, a Fae war? Which Courts?” He hoped that the Hatfords hadn’t been involved.

“What?” Matt stared at him in confusion for a second then shook his head. “Titania’s tits, do you really _not_ know about World War II?”

“Are you telling me that all the Courts went to war?” Neil found that hard to believe – mostly because it seemed that they _weren’t_ still fighting and there were a lot Fae left alive.

“No, not the Fae, the _humans_ ,” Matt stressed as he came to a halt in the middle of the hallway. “Fuck, did you really miss out on War World II?” When all Neil did was stare back at him in disinterest, he swore again. “What about World War I?”

“Well, I would assume there was a first if there was a second,” Neil surmised, annoyed at basically being called an idiot. “Are you telling me that the entire world went to war not once, but twice within a century?” His frown deepened as he thought about it. “That’s a lot of countries. Why aren’t they still fighting?”

“It wasn’t… well, it wasn’t the entire world,” Matt mumbled while he rubbed at his forehead as if he had a headache. “Mostly the North America and Europe and a couple in Asia… but you’re missing the point here, how could you _not_ notice those events?”

Humans and their love of hyperbole, in other words, something the Fae were guilty of as well, Neil could admit. “It’s peaceful in the Dark Road,” was all he said with a slight shrug. Which was why he wanted to get _back_ there.

“I don’t… you missed out on so much, dude.” Matt shook his head as they resumed walking.

Neil disagreed; it had become clear during his ‘talks’ with Andrew and Kevin that he’d lost a lot of time in the Dark Road – his mother had died around the turn of the twentieth century and was it was now the start of the twenty-first. A century of time in which a lot had seemed to happen and he had barely aged at all.

For some reason, everyone was so concerned about those facts, about how he’d changed – or hadn’t - his appearance and his dependence on sustenance from the Dark Road. While it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t pleased with what had happened to his ears and eyes… in the end it didn’t matter because he wasn’t that concerned with how he looked, not when it was just him and the pack on the Dark Road (a few annoyances aside). Not when his only intention was to get _back_ to the Dark Road. Where he would eat the food he found there for the rest of his life, however long that was, while the mortal and Fae worlds could go hang.

“We’re in disagreement of that,” was all he said in the end, and let Matt show him around to the large kitchen (run by curious Brownies and Brownie changelings who gave Neil polite nods while doing their best not to gawk at him), and the rest of the knowe. It seemed that Wymack and Abby had told the truth about the place being a sanctuary since Neil saw a wide variety of Fae in passing, purebloods and changelings both, Seelie and Unseelie. “So you take in anyone in need?”

“For the most part,” Matt explained as he smiled to a Trow changeling in passing. “We don’t have unlimited resources, unfortunately, and we’re not going to take in someone who’s too lazy to help themselves. But if you need a helping hand, then Wymack’s good for extending it to you.”

That sounded… it sounded ridiculous, to be honest, but Neil kept that opinion to himself. The Fae could be prideful creatures so he wasn’t certain that Wymack’s charity would always be reciprocated… but it might be worth the gamble in the end. After all, _he_ was holding back on his father’s talent out of respect and gratitude for Abby’s healing ability, even if at least one of his wounds was the responsibility of Wymack’s vassal.

Neil struggled not to frown when he thought about Andrew, about the necromancer. As far as he could tell, Andrew was another changeling, yet the young man radiated so much power. He’d know for certain if he asked it as one of his questions, but in the end it didn’t really matter – _power_ and _ability_ did. While some of the Fae (most of the Fae) might sneer at changelings, might say that one’s bloodlines and the purity of them mattered, Neil had spent decades on the run, had been chased down by a myriad of Fae his father had sent after him. Those Fae had been pureblood and changeling, and Neil knew both to be utterly vicious and terrible to fight – perhaps the changelings a bit worse since they had more to prove. They knew the mortal world better and were more difficult to lose there, and could be oh so clever in their spells since they relied on more than just power at times. When they _did_ have power? Neil knew to be on his guard.

He was always on guard around Andrew.

It was more than the fact that the necromancer had managed to land a blow on him not once but twice, it was more than that heavy press of cold power. It was the manic grin and the almost dead eyes. It was how quickly Andrew picked up on Neil’s pain points (the ‘kitty-cat’ jabs, being able to snap him back whenever something triggered memories of what Riko’s men had done to him). It was the blatant distrust Andrew still had in him even after Neil swore that he had nothing to do with the Moriyamas or anyone else, evident by the spirit trailing after Neil and Matt as they went through the knowe.

Neil pondered Andrew, who seemed in such sharp contrast to the others he’d met in the knowe, while Matt led him to some sort of common area – a set of rooms with what looked to be comfortable chairs and couches, with a large fireplace and scattered tables, with bookshelves containing books and various knickknacks. He was surprised by the effort that the knowe went through to make everyone comfortable, to provide for their wants, while Matt grinned and gestured about the room. “So a lot of us come here to hang out, maybe play some cards and the like when we don’t have much better to do.” His expression faltered a little as he gazed at Neil. “You do play cards, right?”

“I know a game or two,” Neil admitted. “So you like to gamble?”

Matt winced at the question for some reason. “You could say that. You might want to be careful if anyone-“

“Oi, looks like you got stuck on walksies duty,” someone called out; Neil noticed the way that Matt’s broad shoulders stiffened and glanced about to see someone approach them with a disgusted expression on his face. “Didn’t Abby give you a leash or something, Matt?”

Neil watched as Seth Gordon, whom he _thought_ was a Cait Sidhe (it was difficult to tell with the changeling when his Sidhe blood was so weak), smirked at Matt in a rather unpleasant manner. The changeling, dressed in clothes which were torn yet clean, leaving Neil to suspect that the attire was deliberate, leaned against the wall of the common room as a faint scent of something sickly sweet and mint wafted over to Neil.

“Not funny, Seth,” Matt all but growled as he shifted to stand in a protective manner in front of Neil. “Why don’t you go bother Allison, or is she tired of dealing with your lame ass this week?”

Seth’s jaw clenched at the jab for some reason and his eyes narrowed; they were a dark brown color and lacked the vertical slit that some of the Cait Sidhe possessed – the _purebloods_ – and his ears were rounded from what Neil could see due to the Fae’s curly black hair cut close to his head. His skin possessed a dark skin tone, but that didn’t mean much when it came to Fae – especially shape-shifters.

“And why don’t you leave this little pussycat to fend for himself, hmm?” Seth’s eyes narrowed when Neil fought to not react to the nickname, to keep his face expressionless. Yet it was so hard when he heard _that_ word from Seth, someone who seemed to delight in picking at him the couple of times their paths had crossed, to hear it in such a snide tone after Tobias and the others- he drew a sharp breath and forced the thoughts from his head.

“Why are you such an asshole?” Matt asked with evident exasperation. “Why do you-“

“I don’t need anyone to watch over me,” Neil insisted as he stepped from behind Matt to glare at the taunting changeling. “Especially when it comes to someone pathetic like you.”

Matt gave him a surprised look while Seth glared at him. “Oh, look, the fake _kitty_ has a tongue after all,” Seth drawled as he pushed away from the wall. “You got a set of claws to go with those ears and eyes of yours?”

Neil struggled to push down the memories of Tobias and Aleksander and Matsuo and- to push down the memories associated with being asked something similar. “Come close enough and you’ll find out,” he choked out as his magic – as weak as it was – stirred within him.

“Wait, there’s no need for this,” Matt argued as he gestured for Neil to step back before he scowled at Seth. “Stop trying to rile him up, okay?”

“What?” Seth bared sharp teeth at Matt before he looked at Neil. “He’s another stuck-up lordling, a son of a Firstborn slumming it here after being roughed up by the Moriyamas.” The changeling turned the full force of his disdain upon Neil once more, full lips twisted into a sneer as he stepped closer. “What, you didn’t like it at Evermore? Couldn’t kiss ass good enough, _pussy_ cat?” He stopped just out of Neil’s reach while he gave Neil a dismissive look up and down, while Neil was torn between crushing memories and the urge to end the annoying life causing him so much pain. “They didn’t like a freak-ah!”

Before Neil could push past the constrictive band cutting off his oxygen, could fight past the awful memories of hands on his body and the wave of nausea which accompanied it, he found himself watching as Andrew suddenly appeared and shoved a smirking Seth hard against the wall, as that faint sense of sickly sweet and mint was overwhelmed by fresh earth and Spanish moss.

“Oh, did someone say ‘freaks’? That would be you,” Andrew remarked in a surprisingly bland manner as he watched Seth tumble to the floor from the force of the impact while Matt winced and cursed beneath his breath yet didn’t intervene to save the changeling.

Neil drew in a ragged breath and jerked his hands through his hair – he noticed that the gauntlet had covered most of his right hand at some point and hadn’t felt any pain from the silver extending that time – to help center himself, to remind himself that he was in the Foxhole Court and not Evermore. That no one would touch him like that ever again.

While he did that, Andrew regarded him with a steady gaze and Seth more or less managed to regain his feet, his face bloody from where it had been slammed into the wall and his posture unsteady. “What… the _fuck_?” he slurred as he gave a bleary glare at Andrew. “Minyard?”

“Hmm, maybe that should have been ‘brain-dead freaks,” Andrew said as he stepped away from Seth. “You need to watch out for those walls.”

“What the hell?” Seth dabbed at his nose as he continued to glare at the necromancer. “What’s your problem?”

Andrew gave him a sharp smile as he folded his arms over his chest. “Many things, but right now? You.”

“Listen, you psychotic little-“

“ _Enough_ ,” Matt called out as he slashed his right hand through the air, the motion trailed by tiny sparks. “Let it go, Seth, you were being an asshole and deserved it, all right?”

That statement seemed to enrage the changeling, who flicked his blood-covered fingers through the air while he gave all three of them a furious look. “For what? For insulting the wannabe kittycat-“ he gasped as something – Neil thought it was one of the spirits which followed Andrew everywhere – slammed him into the wall again.

“Enough with that,” Andrew said in an almost pleasant tone, except for the too-sharp edge to his smile and the gleam in his hazel eyes. “Don’t call him that again.” Neil was surprised by that command, considering the couple of times that Andrew had used it to mock him.

Except Andrew had thrown it out here and there, had hit Neil with it once as if to prove a point, not to badger him repeatedly in an effort to hurt him as much as possible. Neil… Neil didn’t _get_ Andrew, didn’t understand how someone could distrust him so much yet still have certain lines he seemed unwilling to cross when it came to blatant harm.

Neil was used to people who crossed those lines in regards to him, who were uncaring in what harm they caused him.

“What? A fucking pussycah- ah!” Seth let out a high-pitched wail as Andrew punched him in the stomach, while Neil flinched at the insult directed his way.

“Hmm, someone has a slow learning curve, don’t they?”

“Titania’s tit’s, Andrew, back off a little,” Matt muttered as he rocked back and forth, seemingly upset about how the necromancer was treating Seth but also displeased over how Seth was acting toward Neil. “Smacking him around isn’t going to help anything!”

“I disagree.”

“Wrong, try again.”

Neil and Andrew stared at each other for a second or two before Andrew gave him a manic grin then stepped away from a hunched over Seth. “Watch what you say or the next time I’ll break your jaw,” he warned.

“You’re… fuckin’… nuts,” Seth slurred as he slid down the wall to sit on the floor, legs splayed out and expression dazed from the repeated blows.

“Hmm, yes.” Andrew gave Neil and Matt a two-fingered salute as he sauntered away, which left Neil and Matt with the bleeding and cursing changeling. Matt took one look at Seth’s hunched-over form and declared to Neil that it was time to show him the gardens.

Neil puzzled over Andrew’s actions that day – had the necromancer been _protecting_ him? Standing up for him? _Andrew_? The man who stared at him with open distrust, with the mocking grins and disdain, who enjoyed riling Neil up so much? It was preposterous to think such a thing, especially come the next day when Andrew and Kevin showed up when it was time for Neil’s ‘special’ meal, for the tea Abby brewed him with the water from the Dark Road and a bowl of fruit from there as well – fruit that had darkened as it grew over-ripe.

“That’s the last of it, you know,” Andrew told him with a mocking smile. “Which means that we’ll have to go back tomorrow, will have to face more Moriyama assholes and those freaky mutts again, all for _you_.”

Neil gave him a level look as he accepted the tea from a frowning Abby. “Release the geas and I’m not your problem anymore.” He’d deal with whomever the Moriyamas sent to the Dark Road, him and the pack.

“Oh, where’s the fun in _that_?” Andrew’s grin widened for a moment before it twisted into something predatory. “No, I think you’re going to come with us tonight and see what the neighborhood has to offer by way of fun, in appreciation of the efforts we go to feed you.”

“But I already answer your questions for you,” Neil reminded the bastard.

“Andrew, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Abby added as well, the bowl of grey, mottled fruit held clutched to her chest while she glanced between him, a nervous Kevin and Neil, who was blowing on the mug of tea to cool it.

Andrew merely grinned at her. “But it’s for his own good, he needs to get out a little and he’ll be glamoured and everything.” The smile faded as the necromancer regarded Neil. “That agreement was made before we knew about the Moriyama people waiting for us on your precious Dark Road. More effort? More cost, so put on your dancing shoes tonight.”

“I don’t dance,” Neil muttered, “but _fine_.” He glared over the rim of the mug as he sipped the hot beverage, displeased at how Andrew somehow managed to always get his way. Just a little longer and Neil could leave the unpleasant man behind, could return to the Dark Road forever.

“How wonderful when the mentally challenged finally seem to be learning,” Andrew remarked, which made Neil glare some more. However, before he could return the insult, Kevin rushed to speak.

“So about the shadow wolves,” the Tuatha de Danann asked. “Is there a way we can avoid them?”

“No,” Neil said as he set the mug aside to accept the bowl from Abby. “They’re part of the Dark Road and seem attuned to it.” He’d never figured out how they knew when people had come onto the Dark Road and so to stalk their prey, but thought they might be able to sense when people ‘breached’ the dimension. During his time there he’d seen a few other packs beside ‘his’ own, but the creatures tended to avoid each other so it had only been from a distance, that he’d glimpsed those other wolves. “You’re best bet is for them to be far away from wherever you arrive, but if there’s already someone where you’re going, then the wolves will probably arrive sooner rather than later.”

“Just great,” Kevin muttered as he scrubbed at his scalp with his left hand as if his thoughts bothered him; Neil noticed the scent of alcohol on his breath.

“My turn,” Neil pointed out as he picked up a piece of the fruit; over-ripe or not, he ate it, for a moment a sigh escaping him as he thought about the fruit being fresh and its flesh crisp and tart, not soft and too-sweet. “Where are you taking me tonight?” he asked once he swallowed.

The smile Andrew gave him then made him feel uncomfortable and wish that he hadn’t agreed to go with the necromancer. “A little place called ‘Eden’s Twilight.’ Oh, don’t worry, it’s a safe place for Fae so no one will bother you there.”

Neil had heard of places like that, buildings where fighting and feuds weren’t allowed, but he’d never been to them because his mother hadn’t trusted them, hadn’t wanted to risk people being able to pick up their trail if they stopped there for any length of time. He supposed it was safe, as long as he was glamoured to look different than his ‘usual’ appearance.

“How did you survive for so long if you can’t avoid the shadow wolves?” Andrew asked him; there had been general ones about the wolves before, but that had been rather direct.

“Because I wasn’t a threat to them,” Neil admitted. “And probably because by leaving me alive, I kept them well-fed as bait of sorts.” Both of those were the truth, and were all that Neil was willing to tell these people about his ‘pack’. “Now why are you taking me to this ‘Eden’s Twilight’?”

The sharp, mocking edge was back in Andrew’s voice, and Kevin glowered in evident displeasure in having the question session derailed yet again, in him being deprived in finding out more information on the Dark Road and Fae artifacts and so forth. “Because I think it’ll be oh-so amusing, seeing someone who’s as big an idiot as you out in the mortal world for a few hours.”

Neil bared his teeth at the mocking bastard. “I changed my mind, I think the shadow wolves will recover quickly enough from eating you. After all, there’s not much meat at all, is there? An ignorant, rude little _runt_ like you won’t take them long.”

Kevin took to cursing in French while Abby gasped out Neil’s name, and all the while Andrew merely gazed back at Neil with that mocking smile as the spirits became agitated farther back in the lab – did the necromancer realize how much of a ‘tell’ his powers could be? “You’ve seen them eat people,” Andrew said, his tone thoughtful.

Since it wasn’t phrased as a question, all Neil did was give the bastard a shade of his father’s smile, until Andrew scoffed. “And who’s calling who a ‘runt’?” Then he did some cursing himself, because _that_ was a question.

“I take after my mother’s bloodline in that regard,” Neil told him with a smirk as he picked up another fruit. “Us Scáth Sidhe have always been lacking in stature, but it makes it easier to slip into the shadows.”

“Dammit, Andrew, I could have told you that!” Kevin sulked over the loss of a question – and the fact that he wouldn’t get another chance until he went back to the Dark Road for more fruit.

Neil paused to eat the second fruit before he asked the last question. “Am I going to come back from this Eden’s Twilight?” It was clear that Andrew didn’t trust him, was the only one of Wymack’s vassals – well, beside Seth - who didn’t want him at the knowe, so best to ensure that it wasn’t the necromancer doing something to get rid of a risk.

Abby gasped again while Kevin stared at him with wide green eyes, yet all Andrew did was regard him with a heavy-lidded gaze. “You’re still under the Foxhole Court’s protection for another fourteen days, whether I like it or not, so yes, you’ll be coming back much the same as you leave for the place.”

Not entirely reassuring, but Neil nodded as he set the pit of the fruit in the bowl. “Very well, I’ll see you later then,” he said without much enthusiasm, since they were done for the time being.

“I’ll be counting down the hours,” Andrew remarked, voice thick with sarcasm. “I’ll send Nicky along with something for you to wear.” After making that ominous proclamation, he rose to his feet to leave the workroom without paying any attention to Abby calling out his name.

Kevin gave Neil a pointed look for a few seconds for some reason, then shook his head before following after his friend. Neil frowned at that, then shrugged so he could finish the last fruit and his tea; soon enough he’d find out what Andrew had in store for him. If it was anything along the lines of what the Moriyama had done to him, then the necromancer would have broken his word (despite that ‘much’) and Neil wouldn’t have any compunction about using his talent to protect himself.

He’d also be outside of the knowe, and while he would still have the geas preventing him from returning to the Dark Road… well, if it wasn’t Andrew he was bound to, perhaps some others would be joining them that night. Kevin was almost always at Andrew’s side, and Andrew had mentioned Nicky, whom Neil had met the day before. The more people Neil removed, the more chance he had of breaking the geas. Even if he didn’t, he’d survived for much longer than fourteen days out in the mortal world and could do it again, could wait out the remaining time until the geas ended and he was free.

Just a little longer.

*******

Andrew nodded in approval of the clothes that Nicky had bought for Neil, per his instructions, and handed the bag back to his cousin. “Have him change into them then bring him here.” He gave the pest a warning look. “Make sure he changes, but _don’t touch_ ,” he stressed. “He’s hands off to you, do you understand?” He didn’t care that Nicky and Erik had some sort of open relationship since they were tied to different knowes, the shadow walker was ‘off bounds’ as far as Nicky was concerned. As far as anyone in the Foxhole Court was concerned.

“But he’s _adorable_ ,” Nicky complained with a pout that quickly turned to panic when Andrew’s eyes narrowed and he stroked his fingers along his exposed left arm band. “All right! Sheesh, calm down, I heard what you did to Seth and how the asshole needed a potion from Abby and everything. I get it.”

“It’ll be a first,” Aaron muttered as he tapped his phone against his left hip, clearly impatient for them to leave the knowe.

Nicky gave his cousin the finger but left without saying anything, which was fine with Andrew; it had been too long since the four of them had gone to Eden’s Twilight, thanks to Neil’s arrival, and they all were twitchy with the need to let loose a bit – Kevin was already tapping his fingers against his flask while they waited in the courtyard to leave, while Aaron kept fussing with his phone. Everyone was dressed in black jeans and tops, Aaron and Nicky in tight t-shirts that would suit them better for dancing, Kevin in a black silk dress shirt that showed off his sculpted upper body and Andrew in a black nylon t-shirt that left his arm bands bare yet clung to his shoulders and chest. He might, just _might_ , be looking forward to seeing Roland that night.

He _wasn’t_ looking forward to seeing Renee, who came toward him with a slight smile on her face. “Andrew, may I talk to you before you leave?”

For a moment he debated telling her ‘no’, but it would take Nicky a little while to fetch Neil and Renee didn’t make a habit of small talk so there had to be a reason for her seeking him out. “What?” he asked as he stepped away from his brother and Kevin, not that either of those two paused in their fidgeting.

Renee nodded in gratitude and followed him over to the rosebushes she had managed to nurse back to health, more or less. “I thought you might like to know that Dan and Matt aren’t pleased with your plans for the night. They tried to talk Neil out of it, until they found out that he’d promised to go.”

Lovely, interference from the busybodies. “So, what are they going to do about it? Tag along? Hate me even more?”

“Andrew, they don’t hate you,” Renee sighed, her expression just then one of weariness for some reason, which only deepened when Andrew scoffed. “And they won’t go in case it attracts too much attention, due to there being so many people from the Foxhole Court at the club tonight. They don’t want it to seem out of place, you being there. I just wanted you to know that they’re unhappy and I hope you’re not going to do something… unwise in regards to Neil.” She gave him an intent look while she spoke, as if trying to convey something other than those words.

Andrew smiled, the expression having little to do with comfort or mirth, before he answered. “Oh don’t worry, puddle girl, I’m _overflowing_ with wisdom at the moment.” He flung out his arms as his grin widened. “All I want to do is share it with a certain runner, to help educate him a little better, is that such a bad thing?”

“Andrew….” Renee sighed as she tugged on hem of her crocheted sweater. “Has it ever occurred to you that there’s a reason why you’re reacting to Neil this way? Why _you’re_ acting this way?”

“Because he’s very annoying, much like you,” Andrew told her as the faint trace of semi-real amusement inside of him sputtered out and died. “Now go away.”

As always, Renee listened to him, gave him a slight bow of her head and slipped away on silent feet while he stared at her with open loathing, as he felt a twist of rage and… and _something_ inside of him despite the happy juice.

How dare she act as if she knew everything, as if she knew _him_. And how dare she come to him on Neil’s behalf. On the behalf of a Fae with big eyes and half-truths and a bit of fire that not even the Moriyamas had been able to beat out of him, a Fae whom most of the knowe tripped over their feet to adore; Abby treated Neil as if he was her precious child, Matt followed him around like an eager puppy, Kevin talked about him all the time… Andrew was _sick_ of him. Sick of an idiot who only cared about a grey, strange world he could run to as soon as possible, his gaze distant most of the time as if he didn’t see what was in front of him, what Wymack and Abby and everyone else here was so willing to give him.

Neil could ask almost anything during his turn at questions three times a day, yet all he wanted to know was if they were truly going to let him go, wanted to know about the Moriyamas and his father (to know that they were far away and not about to get their hands on him again). He didn’t want to know more about the Foxhole Court once he’d been assured that he wouldn’t be trapped there past the quarter moon, didn’t want to know anything about Andrew or Abby or the others, didn’t want anything to tie him down once the twenty-eight days were up.

A runner. A runner who could kill with a mere touch, death wrapped up in a lean package with huge eyes and unkempt curls and wariness aplenty, and the morons around Andrew acted like moths drawn to the flame – well, maybe not Seth, who was too jealous, and Aaron, who was too indifferent. But everyone else? It was as if they couldn’t see that Neil would leave them in a moment, would trade the Foxhole Court for the Dark Road without any hesitation.

The rage twisted inside of Andrew at that thought, at how someone could be offered something that had once mattered so much to him, something that had come at such a cost to him and his, and Neil didn’t seem to give a _damn_. Didn’t seem to care what he was so eager to leave behind, about the risk that everyone was willing to accept to give him a safe haven, about _any_ of it.

So Andrew was going to give Neil some incentive to run all the more faster to his precious Dark Road, just in case Abby or Matt or Dan somehow managed to convince the idiot to stick around a little longer, to give the Foxhole Court a chance. Andrew wanted the threat to Aaron and their home gone, the sooner the better.

What he didn’t want was any other conflicted sights of seeing Neil pressed against the wall, eyes closed as he did his best to push aside painful memories, and have some misplaced anger force Andrew to lash out before he thought better of it – even if the target had been the asshole Seth, who deserved it. Because Andrew already had the people he looked out for, whom he had taken under his care and a messed up shadow walker with a Firstborn and a powerful court after him? He hadn’t agreed to _that_.

Andrew had mostly calmed down and Kevin finished off his flask when Nicky finally showed up with an unhappy Neil in tow, along with Dan and Matt. Neil kept fussing with the long sleeves of the black knit shirt he was wearing, his expression one of pure misery, but the shirt and the jeans fit him well – they showed off his lean, almost too-thin form, especially his long legs.

“I don’t… these don’t feel right,” he complained as he tugged on the neck of the shirt. “The material is odd.”

“I told you that you’ll get used to it,” Nicky assured him with a grin. “You look great!”

“I don’t like it.” Neil frowned and shook his head. “I’ll be wearing a glamour so why bother?”

“Because this way you’ll fit in tonight,” Andrew explained before he bared his teeth at a glowering Dan. “What? I swore I’d bring him home in one piece, alive and well.”

“Pardon me if I’m not comforted by that, considering how drunk I’ve seen the others come back some nights.” She gave Kevin a pointed stare while Matt stepped closer to Neil.

“Here, if you run into any trouble, you can reach us with this,” he told Neil as he handed him some sort of charm; it would be a bit much to give the idiot a phone, Andrew suspected. “Don’t hesitate to use it, okay? No strings attached, I swear.”

“Uhm, okay.” Neil paused a moment to accept it, but after glancing at Andrew, took the charm and did something with it, seemed to slip it under the right sleeve of his shirt.

Nicky gave a nervous laugh as he flipped his right hand back and forth, which made the numerous leather bracelets he wore slide up and down his wrist. “That’s not necessary, we’re not gonna… uhm, he’ll be fine with us.”

“Then it shouldn’t matter that Matt gave him the charm, should it?” Dan asked as she stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, her whole attitude radiating antagonism. “We’ll be waiting up for you to return.”

“Not my fault you have nothing better to do,” Andrew said as he motioned for Neil to follow. “Now come,” he told the shadow walker.

“I have reservations about this,” Neil admitted as he fell in step behind Andrew, just out of arm’s reach as always.

“I don’t care, you said you’d come,” Andrew reminded him. “Now be quiet and be good if you want to eat tomorrow.” He was glared at for that, but he truly didn’t care.

It was almost amusing, Neil’s reaction when they left the knowe – he gasped like a fish out of water for several seconds, then bent over and coughed hard enough to wrack his entire body, until Nicky went to pat him on the back before Andrew shook his head.

“When was the last time you were in the mortal world?” Kevin asked after a minute or two had passed and Neil took to wheezing for air.

“I don’t….” Neil shook his head, his lips pressed in a thin line and eyes closed, his right hand cupped over his nose as if to block out an unpleasant smell, which Andrew thought was a bit much. Yes, the air outside of the knowe wasn’t as ‘nice’ as in the Foxhole Court, had a chemical tang to it, but it wasn’t _that_ bad.

“Pull on your glamour,” Andrew told him, unwilling to put up with the dramatics just then. He had to repeat the order before Neil opened his eyes, tears forming in them and the vertical pupils blown wide, then blinked at him a couple of times.

The red curls darkened to black and the café au lait tone skin lightened a couple of shades, the unnatural eyes became more human in their size and irises while their color turned a boring brown. Neil’s face became altered as well, his cheeks and chin rounder, his features a little older.

“Wow, you’re good at that, aren’t you?” Nicky squinted as he leaned a little closer to Neil. “You don’t look the same at all.”

“That’s the point, you idiot,” Aaron sneered as he checked his phone. “We don’t want him getting us into trouble tonight.”

“There’s no need to be so mean! I’m just saying that all I can do is change my hair and eyes, for the most part.” Nicky grinned at Neil as they started walking toward the parking lot. “Do you take requests? How about blond hair?”

“Shut up,” Andrew said as he pulled out his cigarettes. “He’s fine as he is.” Well, the brown eyes were annoying and the black hair so dull, but Nicky had been right in that anyone looking for a cat-eyed, pointy-eared redhead wouldn’t look twice at Neil now.

Neil stumbled a little as they made their way through the woods, but Andrew glared at anyone who would have given him a hand – Nicky, mostly, though Kevin reached for him once. When they reached the parking lot, a low moan escaped the shadow walker and he shook his head once it became clear that Andrew expected him to climb inside of the Maserati.

“No. No, I can’t,” Neil said in a rush as he took a step back – at least, until Andrew grabbed onto the front of his shirt. “It’s metal!”

“And leather and plastic and other things, and you _will_.” He threw his keys at Nicky to drive, unwilling to allow Neil in the back unsupervised. “Now come on, I’m tired of you acting like this.”

“But-“ Neil moaned again as Andrew had the spirits open the back door then had to physically shove the idiot himself into the car, where Neil curled up as small as possible in the middle of the back seat while breathing shallowly, his eyes wide and skin taking on an unhealthy pallor through the glamour. Aaron got in on the other side and gave him a mildly concerned look for a moment before scooting away as much as possible, and Kevin twisted about in the passenger front seat to frown at the three of them.

“Neil?” He snapped the fingers of his right hand near Neil’s face, but the Fae didn’t react. “Andrew, perhaps this-“

“Shut up,” Andrew told him without any inflection. “Nicky, get going.”

“Uhm, okay.” Nicky started the car, and the roar of its engine made Neil moan yet again and bury his face against his knees and wrap his arms over his head. Kevin spared a harsh look Andrew’s way before turning forward in his own seat, and it was a very quiet drive to Columbia with Neil trembling the entire time.

It took Neil a moment to realize when the car had stopped and that they were getting out of it; he lifted his head in a cautious manner and then uncoiled so he could bolt out of the door – Aaron’s side, Andrew noticed with some dark amusement. Not that he got very far, considering that Sweeties’ parking lot was full of cars and that Kevin was there to yank him back by the arm.

“Where are we?” Neil had a wild look to him as he whirled around, right arm raised in a fist as if to hit Kevin; Andrew got to the other side of the car in a rush but by that point, Kevin had let go and the idiot could barely stand on his feet. “What are you doing?” He went to slump forward and realized that there were nothing but cars – metal cars – all around him and cursed in old Fae as he ran shaking hands through his sweat-soaked hair.

“It’s all right,” Nicky tried to assure him. “We’re just going to get something to eat, okay? It’ll be okay.”

Neil let out a twisted laugh at that. “Eat? _Me_?” His knees gave out as he fell onto the asphalt, which set off a harsh coughing spell.

Andrew clicked his tongue as he flicked aside his cigarette while he approached the fucked-up mess huddled on the ground; he would prefer to have the spirits handle things, but they were out in the mortal world and the spirits still wanted nothing to do with Neil. That meant he had to grab a handful of the soft, black material of Neil’s shirt and use it to yank him up then shove him forward. “Come on, you prima donna.”

“ _What_?” Neil twisted about to gape at him for a moment, and nearly tripped over the curb. “You… _bastard_!”

“Least I don’t freak over something like a simple car ride.” At that point they’d reached the front door, so Andrew let go of Neil’s shirt but still pushed him into the restaurant while Aaron held open the door. They garnished more than a few stares for their antics, but were known well enough by the staff that they were quickly seated in a large back booth.

Neil cringed at having Andrew and Kevin seated near him and stared around the restaurant as if he’d never seen such a place before; when Andrew thought about it, he realized that it was probably true. “What is this place?” Neil asked as he tugged the sleeves over his hands.

“It’s Sweeties,” Nicky told him with a smile. “We almost always come here before we go to Eden’s Twilight, it has the best ice cream!” When all Neil did was give him a blank look in return, he groaned. “What, you don’t know what ice cream is?”

“Cold cream?” Neil guessed, and then flinched when one of the servers, a human woman in her late teens, came over to take their order.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen you guys, everything okay?” Kelly asked them with a smile as she gave Neil a curious look.

“We’ve been busy with work,” Nicky told her, and spent a couple of minutes chatting with the young woman while Neil kept his head ducked low. When Nicky finished, everyone gave Kelly their orders – Andrew told her to bring out a large sundae and a glass of water for Neil.

“You’ll like it,” Nicky assured the shadow walker, who appeared highly doubtful of that fact but remained quiet as he gazed at the humans eating and talking in the restaurant.

“It’s… a human establishment?” Neil sounded amazed about that fact, amazed and a little confused. “And you come here?”

Andrew gave him a flat look for those questions. “What’s wrong with us coming here?”

Neil’s brows drew together; for some reason, the longer Andrew looked at the glamour, the more he grew annoyed with it. “It’s just… my mother and I, we never-“ He stopped himself and shook his head, as if he realized that he was giving away a truth for free. Ah, ah, couldn’t have that, now could they?

Still, it seemed as if Kevin could figure out what he meant to say. “It’s not like it used to be,” he told Neil. “They don’t really believe in us anymore so it’s not a big deal, us hanging out with them as long as we… well, some of us,” he said as he glanced at Andrew, Aaron and Nicky, “use the glamour.”

In other words, as long as those with pointy ears or unnaturally colored skin and hair (though the later wasn’t that big a deal anymore) hid their features – the purebloods or the rare changelings who took after their Fae parents. Or idiots who ate shit they should know better not to eat.

It didn’t look as if Neil believed Kevin, but he attempted to settle back in the booth before wincing (probably at the feel of plastic) then sitting with his shoulders slumped and his expression miserable once more. When Kelly dropped off their drinks, he attempted to sip the water, but grimaced after one mouthful and was quick to set the glass aside.

“How do they… it’s awful,” he mumbled as he hunched in on himself once more.

“Eh? But it’s fine.” Nicky reached over for the glass and tried it himself then shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Neil looked at him as if he was crazy. “It’s _foul_.”

Nicky glanced at Andrew as if for help, while Kevin shook his head. “You’re just not used to it.” That remark earned him a long string of what could only be curses in old Fae, which made Kevin’s expression turned downright scandalized. “Hey, there’s no call for that!”

Neil gave him a baleful look from beneath his overlong bangs before sulking in silence, which was fine with Andrew, it meant he could drink his soda in peace while Aaron fiddled with his phone and glanced around the table as if waiting for some sort of explosion to occur.

It only took a few more minutes for their ice cream to arrive, and Andrew received a new amusement in watching Neil eye the mound of ice cream, flavored toppings and whipped cream. “Uhm, I don’t think-“

“Eat it,” Andrew told him. “It’s rude to refuse a gift.”

“But I can’t-“ Neil bit into his bottom lip as he reached for a spoon, only to jerk his hand away. “I can’t.”

About to call him a prima donna again, Andrew realized that all of the utensils back at the knowe were either wooden or made of silver, so Neil probably wasn’t used to the metal ones at the restaurant – one would think stainless steel would be all right, but apparently not for an idiot Fae who spent too long on the Dark Road. Somehow, Andrew didn’t think that plastic ones would be much better, either.

Still, he was surprised when Neil reached out with his fingers to scoop up some of the ice cream then licked them clean, which caused an odd twist to Andrew’s stomach. He told himself that it was the thought of germs and the such which affected him, and then he snorted at the exaggerated grimace which contorted Neil’s face, followed by another low moan.

“No… I just… _no_ ,” the shadow walker proclaimed before his pink tongue flicked in and out of his mouth as if he was attempting to scrape it clean with his teeth; again, Andrew felt something twist inside of him as he watched on with fascination. Then Neil moaned again and hunched over with his arms wrapped around his middle and made a gagging sound.

“Huh.” Andrew watched on as he licked at his own spoonful of ice cream. “You really fucked yourself over with that grey fruit, you know.” When Neil mumbled something in old Fae, he looked over at Kevin, who shrugged.

“It doesn’t translate well, but he basically called you a pixie lover,” Kevin admitted with obvious reluctance. “Uhm, I think it’s because of the ice cream… pixies like sweet stuff.” Beside him, Aaron chortled and Nicky’s expression became incredulous.

Someone needed to stop being so interesting, what with that fire and refusal to throw in the towel, to learn their lesson and realize that it was best to go along with Andrew.

Kelly asked if there was something wrong with Neil’s sundae, which Nicky assured her that their ‘friend’ simply didn’t have much of an appetite after all. As soon as she left the check on the table, Andrew put some money down and hauled Neil back to the car again, where he took to coughing and gagging on the short drive to Eden’s Twilight.

He once more rushed to get out of the Maserati as soon as Nicky parked, that time almost climbing over Aaron in his haste, and he spat up the little bit of water and ice cream he’d eaten back at Sweeties. “ _This really isn’t a good idea_ ,” Aaron – _Aaron_ , of all people – murmured to Andrew in German while Neil wiped at his sweat-covered face, but fell quiet after a single look from Andrew.

Neil wavered on his feet as Andrew once again pulled him by his shirt, and part of Andrew wondered why he was doing this, why he didn’t call it a night and take the Fae back to the knowe. It was clear that whatever the hell Neil had done on the Dark Road had changed him too much for him to be comfortable in the mortal world any longer, for him to tolerate all the metals and chemicals that most Fae found abrasive from time to time – at least, not without being properly acclimated to things.

So why pull him into a club filled with metal and loud music and smoke? With alcohol he probably couldn’t stomach and too many people in too little space? All so Andrew could prove to himself that in the end, this one Fae didn’t matter at all? To prove to Neil that he wasn’t anything special despite the way that everyone else reacted to him?

Despite the way that Andrew found himself so interested in the runner, the way he saw so much of himself in Neil, in how he was torn between seeing him as a threat and reacting whenever someone made Neil panic or shut down.

Oh, Neil was a threat all right, in more ways than Andrew had ever imagined, so it was best to ensure that he was soon out of Andrew’s life.

Neil hunched in on himself as much as possible once inside of the club, obviously distraught over the press of people around him even if they were mostly Fae. Kevin and Nicky seemed to hover around him as some sort of buffer, and he flinched when Roland leaned close to him at the bar. “Hey, you’re new. Who are you?”

“Alex,” Neil offered, his voice hoarse and barely audible over the sound of voices and dance music; Andrew almost arched an eyebrow at the name but didn’t say anything, since they didn’t want anyone to realize who Neil was and for word to get back to the Moriyamas.

“All right, ‘Alex’.” Roland smiled in a manner which made it clear that he was playing along before he turned his attention to Andrew. “What’ll it be tonight?”

“The usual, along with some shots for him.” Andrew nodded toward Neil, who was shaking his head. Roland gave Andrew a slight nod before he went to mix the drinks, and soon enough they had a large tray ready for them. Andrew tapped several folded bills twice on the bar before he set them down, code that he’d meet Roland in the back room shortly, then picked up the tray so they could to drink them at a table.

Neil stared at all the drinks in surprise, then blinked when Kevin, Nicky and Aaron were quick to grab their shots. He blinked again when Andrew pushed several toward him. “Drink up.”

“I told you that I don’t drink.”

Andrew ignored the Fae’s mulish expression and tapped his fingers near one of the shots – something he’d arranged with Roland ahead of time. “I don’t care, you’re out with us tonight so you’ll drink. They’re Fae brandy so you should be able to tolerate them.” Some sort of Fae brandy and a little ‘extra’, something potent that hopefully should loosen Neil up, should make him relax and maybe become a little talkative since Andrew was getting tired of the ‘three questions only’ game.

Neil’s brows drew together as he stared at Andrew. “This is ridiculous, I don’t see why I have to keep humoring you.”

“Because I’ll be ‘humoring’ you tomorrow when I fight off how many Fae, hmm?” Andrew raised a shot glass of his own then tossed it back while still meeting Neil’s gaze, and smiled when Neil muttered another old Fae curse before picking up one of the special drinks.

He sputtered after the first one but forced himself to keep on drinking them, then stopped after the third one when he gasped several times; it was more than Andrew had expected him to do, to be honest. Kevin, Aaron and Nicky had paused to watch him drink, but at Andrew’s cool look resumed their own drinking so Nicky and Aaron could head out to the dance floor.

Kevin said something to Neil in old Fae, which made Neil shake his head a couple of times until he groaned and slumped forward to rest his elbows on the table. “Wow, guess you really don’t drink, do you,” Andrew taunted as he picked up the last of his shots.

“You… why are you doing this?” Neil asked – oh ho, was that a slight slur to his voice?

“Just want you to know what you’re missing out on,” Andrew told him with a false, too sympathetic grin. “I didn’t see any bars on that precious… well, you know where.” Probably not a good idea to mention the Dark Road when there were so many Fae around.

Neil went to shake his head then seemed to think better of it. “I don’t… I don’t care about any of this.” He made an abortive motion with his right hand to everything around him. “It’s just… the usual Fae lies and… and all.” He seemed to have a trouble swallowing. “Pretty on the surface and a price deep down. I just wanna be left alone,” he said, the same, boring refrain which made Andrew want to grab him and shake and shake and _shake_ until something else came out as he rubbed at his right wrist, at the gauntlet hidden beneath the long sleeve of his shirt.

Well, if someone wasn’t going to be any fun, Andrew was going to go have some of his own. “Finish your drinks since they’re paid for,” he ordered Neil, which prompted another low groan. “Stay together and stay out of trouble,” he told Kevin before he slipped away; maybe when he came back Neil would be in a mood to talk.

He noticed that Roland wasn’t behind the bar anymore and hurried to the storeroom, anticipation building in him with each step to the point that he slammed the door shut behind him when he found a smirking Roland lounging against the wall in the cramped room.  “Hands to yourself,” he all but growled out to the Tuatha de Danann as he pushed himself between Roland’s long legs for harsh, brief kiss, annoyed that he had to rock up on his toes even though the man was slouched down.

Roland tasted of tobacco and whiskey, and kissed back with a rough fervor which fought with the manic energy inside of Andrew, to replace the false happiness with lust. He allowed the desire to sweep him away, gave in to the need to feel something else, to be in control of himself and someone else, to break the man in front of him down, as he nipped at Roland’s bottom lip then pulled away while the Fae groaned.

“Fuck yeah,” Roland whispered, his deep voice made hoarse as his hands clenched into fists when Andrew skimmed his own down a broad, defined chest while he sank onto his knees. His own cock growing hard, Andrew licked at his dry lips as he tugged on the tight waistband of Roland’s leather pants then palmed the hard bulge beneath them for a moment, delighted at the deeper, needy moan he wrung from the man in return. “Fuck yeah,” Roland repeated.

“Quiet,” Andrew ordered, not in the mood for a commentary just then – he knew Roland wanted it and he was too on edge to risk something setting him off just then. Plus, they didn’t have much time, so with that in mind, he undid the laces to the leather pants and gave Roland’s hard, long dick a couple of rough strokes which made the man hiss and buck his hips before he leaned forward to lick it once then slipped the head into his mouth.

The point of him and Roland were hasty hand-jobs and blowjobs, were rough kisses and dry humping and- it was quick and dirty and a way for Andrew to feel something that didn’t come from a fucking potion. For him to take something _back_. It wasn’t love. It was barely _like_. It was quick, it was often rough, it had defined boundaries and they usually both got off, Andrew often at his own hand because while he trusted Roland, he didn’t trust him _that_ much – not even after a couple of decades. So as he sucked and licked his way up and down Roland’s cock, as he fondled the man’s balls and made Roland shudder and moan, his left hand unzipped his jeans to free his own hard cock to jerk himself off, to deal with his own need and frustration. Around him in the small room the spirits took to whirling around, to whispering his name and brushing against him, but he ignored them to focus on Roland and his own emotions, put down their antics to the overspill of his need and the growing sharp bite of too-rare bliss inside of him.

Roland moaned, the sound faint as Andrew took him in deep, and for a moment Andrew imagined Neil and the noises he’d been making all night. Imagined him with his unruly curls and huge eyes lit up with indignation… and instead of being disgusted, felt himself shudder and the pleasure twist even sharper inside of him. Felt his release creep even closer, and it had been too long, really, so that a few more strokes were enough to twist the need and pleasure past the point where it all came undone.

He shivered through his release, his right hand slowing on Roland’s cock and him pulling away enough to nuzzle its length for a couple seconds before he gave it a long lick once he caught his breath. He had just slid it back into his mouth to the sound of Roland’s appreciative murmur when there was a loud banging sound on the door – which made him pull away in a hurry and Roland yelp.

“Andrew! Get out here, Neil’s gone!” Kevin yelled in an obvious panic, then resumed banging on the door. “Did you hear me? I can’t find him!”

For a moment laughter welled inside of Andrew, drug-induced amusement warring with anger and resignation (really, what _had_ he expected between his luck and someone he had dubbed ‘runner’?), before he shoved himself onto his feet while snatching at one of the bar towels hanging on a nearby shelf to wipe at his hands and mouth.

“Andrew? What the fuck?” Roland called out, only to be silenced when Andrew flicked a jinx at the man over his shoulder right before he tucked himself into his pants then flung the door open.

“What?” Andrew snarled at Kevin as he shoved him out of the way. “How the hell did you lose him?”

Kevin backpedaled out of his way while shaking his head. “He complained about needing to throw up so I took him to the bathroom. One moment he was in the stall and the next… I swear to you, I only took my eyes off of him for a couple of seconds!”

Andrew stopped for a moment so he could grab onto Kevin’s shirt and yank him forward. “You left him the fuck alone? After I told you to stay with him?”

For once Kevin didn’t back down but smacked at the hand holding on to him. “ _You’re_ the one who dragged him out here! Who left him first so you could hang out with your fuckbuddy so don’t go there!” Then his anger sputtered out as always. “I mean… dammit, we need to find him!”

That Andrew agreed with, so he gave Kevin a cold look before letting go of the coward’s shirt while sending the spirits out to search the club. “Let’s get the others.” He wanted everyone together in case the Moriyamas had sent anyone to grab Neil, unwilling to put anyone else at danger.

Dammit, Roland hadn’t warned him about there being anyone loyal to the Moriyamas in the club, and Eden’s was supposed to be safe. Riko and Tetsuji hadn’t tried any shit with Kevin, so why risk it for Neil? Why would _anyone_ risk it for Neil, when it was so much better to make a grab for him on the way back to the Foxhole Court if they’d realized that Andrew had brought him out tonight?

The spirits didn’t notice anything and Andrew had just dragged his rather unhappy brother and cousin off of the dance floor when Aaron’s phone rang. Pausing in giving Andrew a dirty look, Aaron pulled the device out of his pocket and acted surprise when he noticed who was calling, shoving the phone hard against his right ear after he answered it while cupping his left hand against his other ear.

“What do you- what?” He blinked at whatever the person on the other end told him. “Really?” He glanced over at Andrew. “Well sit on him or something, I think we’ll be back for him soon.” Andrew’s eyes narrowed at that. “Don’t fucking blame me, it wasn’t my idea,” Aaron snapped before he hung up. “Call off the search party,” he told Andrew, “Neil’s back at the knowe.”

Andrew fought the urge to punch something as he remembered about Matt giving Neil the charm. “How?” Renee said that the busybodies weren’t following them to the club.

“Seems he knew enough to get out of the club and find a tree, and after that had Dan come get him,” Aaron explained as he shoved his phone back into the front pocket of his jeans. “Oh, and Dan is _pissed_ , go figure. Wymack’s not happy, either.” Aaron resumed glaring at him. “This is all your fault.”

Andrew merely smiled at that. “One day I’ll hear something different from you,” he told his brother before he used a spirit to shove the asshole forward, toward the nearest exit. “Let’s go, children, time for everyone’s favorite pastime, Andrew being blamed for everything yet again.”

“Because it’s _your_ fault,” Aaron repeated, his tone surlier than before. Andrew’s hands curled into fists as he fought the urge to swing out and not stop, to never stop because the rage would never end. Oh yes, it was indeed his fault, it always was… but funny how the others never complained about how they benefited from his actions, how he did things for them or how they never protested until _after_ things went wrong.

Wasn’t it just wonderful to have a convenient scapegoat?

It was a quiet drive back to Palmetto, and as soon as they entered the knowe they found Wymack and Dan waiting for them in the courtyard, both still dressed despite the lateness of the hour. Wymack had a sour look on his face and Dan appeared furious, which gave everyone but Andrew pause.

“Aw, you didn’t have to wait up to welcome us back,” he told the two with a lopsided grin. “We can tuck ourselves into bed on our own.”

“Don’t,” Wymack warned him, his hands fisted on the leather belt he wore over his tan tunic. “Don’t start that shit with me, you damn demented dwarf. Abby told me that you swore that you’d bring Neil back safe and sound, and what the fuck happened? He shows up sick as hell, barely able to stand and desperate to get away from your lot. How the hell is that you keeping him safe?”

Andrew gave a slight shrug in the face of the man’s wrath. “I promised to bring him back in one piece, more or less. Not my fault he ran off before I could do that.”

“ _Don’t_ ,” Wymack repeated. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, not tonight, not when you treated a guest like that.”

Behind Andrew, Kevin shifted about and Nicky murmured something beneath his breath, so he motioned for his family and his friend to leave. “Go,” he told them with no little amount of sarcasm, “this is on me.” When Wymack frowned at that, he shook his head. “Tonight was my idea, do your barking at _me_ ,” he argued while the three took advantage of the chance to flee.

“What the fuck possessed you to treat the kid like that?” Wymack demanded to know as he folded his arms over his chest, the sleeves riding up enough to expose the ends of his tattoos. “He’s been through hell so you decide treating him like shit on top of it was a great idea?”

“He _survived_ the Moriyamas,” Andrew threw back at the old man. “Somehow I figured he could survive some ice cream and a few-“

“No,” Dan cut in, her eyes narrowed in anger and voice sharp with the emotion. “No, you have no fucking clue!” The trees lining the courtyard reacted to her temper, their limbs swaying as if caught in a strong breeze as loose leaves rained down, as the bushes rustled and pixies burst into chattering with displeasure from having their resting places disturbed. “Neil was so sick from the chemicals and everything you forced down his throat that he’s off with Renee right now so she can purge everything from his system! He could barely make it to the trees for me to bring him home, damn you!”

Andrew scowled at her for that. “He just had some ice cream and a few drinks, we didn’t force iron or anything on him.” It hadn’t been that much, had it? He’d wanted Neil to be uncomfortable, but the idiot was under the knowe’s protection – Andrew could do his best to scare him away, but not outright harm him unless Neil attempted to harm one of them first.

He’d never cross a line like that, would never go back on his word. He’d destroy anyone or anything which tried to harm what he’d taken under his own protection, but he wouldn’t go back on his word once it had been given.

So why had he been so driven to make Neil so miserable that night?

“Yeah, well I don’t care what you did or didn’t do,” Wymack said as he pointed at Andrew. “Tomorrow bright and early you’re going to fetch some food for the kid, and then you’re going to stay the fuck away from him, do you – where the fuck are you going?”

Andrew ignored the old man as he spun around to go find Renee; he had a few of the spirits block Wymack and Dan from following them, and used his earth magic to prevent Dan from trapping him with some roots along the way. He needed to see Renee, needed to find out what the naiad had meant the last couple of times they’d talked. About him not listening or wondering about things.

Well, he sure as hell was wondering now.

He tried the small pools tucked behind the one herb garden where Renee often helped people soak after sparring sessions, and heard soft voices as he came upon the cedar fence. For a moment he almost stalked around the barrier, until he remembered what had happened to Neil at Evermore.

“Renee, you better be in the mood to talk,” he called out as he paused long enough to sense the spirits’ apprehension and confirm that Neil was behind the fence, then he rounded the fragrant wall to find Renee sitting with her back to a pool – the one filled with heavy minerals which clouded the water and helped with ‘detox’, at least according the naiad. The one containing a tired looking Neil, stripped of his glamour and at least his shirt.

“Hello, Andrew,” Renee said, for once lacking her smile and usual good will. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be here, considering everything.” She gave a slight wave of her right hand as if to dismiss him.

“Oh no, I think I’m right where I need to be.” He forced himself to look at Neil, whose brows were drawn together in a glower. “Feeling better?”

“No thanks to you,” Neil spat. “Here to poison me some more?”

It was on the tip of Andrew’s tongue to lash out, to say something sharp and caustic and- and he struggled to push it down, to not give in and argue, to feed the anger inside of him. Now that he was aware of it, he could see what he’d mistaken as brittle-edged amusement, as drug-fueled mania was something _more_ , something _worse_. “What is it?” he asked Renee. “What the _fuck_ is it inside of me?”

Neil blinked at that while Renee drew in a sharp breath then pushed the robe and towel on the bench beside her back toward the pool. “Neil, it may be a good idea for you to leave now, the toxins should be gone.”

“No,” the stubborn idiot said as he swam to the edge of the pool to grab the items, his unnatural eyes intent on Andrew. “This just got interesting.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Renee murmured. “What exactly are you asking me?” She gave Andrew a pointed look as she leaned forward with her hands clasped between her knees.

His own hands clenched into fists at the thought of putting what he was feeling into words, Andrew struggled for a moment; the spirits were torn between reacting to him and not going anywhere near Neil, and after a couple of seconds Andrew forced them and himself to calm down. “I just realized that something’s affecting me, something’s messing with my head.” He didn’t like that, he didn’t like that at all. “Is it a spell? A curse?” When she continued to merely gaze at him, he took a step forward. “Is it the fucking _potion_?” Was it the damn ‘happy juice’ that he was forced to take almost every day?

Renee didn’t need to answer him, not when her expression shifted into pity, while Neil pushed up enough in the pool to expose the scars on his upper chest. “Wait, what potion?” When neither Andrew nor Renee said anything, he reached for the towel on the stone-tiled ground. “Are you taking a _potion_?” There was a sharp edge to the question just then.

“Why the fuck do you care?” Andrew asked as he ran his hands along his arm bands, as he fought the urge to pull his blades and stab somebody – such as a naiad who had known something and said _nothing_ and a nosy shadow walker.

“No, no, tell me the SEC isn’t behind it,” Neil babbled as he rushed out of the pool with the towel wrapped around him. “It’s just a coincidence.”

As soon as he heard ‘SEC’, Andrew stalked forward to get in Neil’s face, which nearly made the shadow walker fall back into the pool. “What the fuck do _you_ know?”

Neil waved the robe in Andrew’s face to make him back up a little, a hint of panic to his voice and a tightness to his sharp jaw. “All I know is what Ri-riko told me one day. He… he went on about how powerful he was, about setting the SEC on some changeling who didn’t know his place.” He shook his head as he yanked on the robe over the wet towel, his hands trembling so much that he couldn’t tie the sash around his waist. “Suh-something about a potion to drive him mad.  Riko was proud about that, was taunting me about what he could do.” Neil shuddered as he clenched the robe around his lean frame. “The bastard enjoyed telling me about breaking all these people and threatening me with what he’d do to me next, so it was just one story amongst others.”

For a moment Andrew wanted to hurt Neil, to make him shut up, to stop talking… but it wasn’t Neil’s fault. Oh no, it was Riko’s… Riko, the prick who had broken Kevin’s hand, who had used iron against Neil and so much more. The prick Andrew had thrown out of Eden’s Twilight so long ago.

The prick who was related to Tetsuji Moriyama, whom people had warned Andrew was powerful, was petty and not to be messed with or else.

Well, guess he’d found out that ‘or else’.

He forced himself to step back from Neil and turned toward a quiet Renee. "You knew about this?" Behind him the spirits were splashing in the other pools of water and rattling the cedar planks in reaction to his thoughts of the people here at the Foxhole Court being in collusion with the SEC and Riko in drugging him - people he'd oh so foolishly trusted somewhat.

Renee stirred at the question and shook her head. "Not until recently, when I rode a drop of your blood," she admitted. "I'd had my suspicions before, but that confirmed them enough for me to seek out the ingredients that the SEC delivers to Abby so she can render the potion for you and to check them." Her lips twisted into a grimace for a moment. "Then I knew." While she talked, Neil approached her with cautious steps, his attention constantly shifting back and forth between her and Andrew as if uncertain which of them deserved it more. "Abby doesn't know what she's doing, the SEC's alchemist is quite good at their job."

Andrew scoffed at that. "Yet you've figured it out?  Why should I believe anything you tell me?" He gave her a smile that was all bite. "Maybe you're in on it, too."

Of course she didn't appear offended by the jab. "Because deep down, I'm rather impressed by what they're doing, despite it all," she admitted with obvious regret, which made Neil shuffle back a little. "I'm not sure I'm skilled enough to pull off something like it."

In spite of everything, Andrew felt a hint of intrigue. "Does someone have a story to tell," he mock-gasped. "Sweet little puddle girl have a nasty side to her after all?"

That earned him a sour look for a moment while Renee turned a little to a quiet Neil. "You're right, he can be a bit of a bastard and it's not all the drugs." Then she shrugged. "But he's still one of our own," she continued with a hint of a smile. "I'm not pure naiad, you know," she confessed to Andrew as she used her power to cause a small typhoon in the pool to her left. "My mother was half maenad."

Andrew hated to admit that he was somewhat impressed as maenads weren't Fae to be messed with, from what he heard. "And the point of this is?"

Renee didn't appear annoyed at being interrupted. "Ask Neil what it was like, before the knowes were discovered and even afterwards for a while, as he was taught his history. What happened to the Fae who weren't from the 'worthy' bloodlines." Ah, it was impressive, the amount of scorn she put into that one word.

Neil appeared overwhelmed in the damp robe he was wearing, probably Matt's considering how it covered him from neck to feet and even trailed on the ground, like a child in his father's garment; it made him appear fragile, until one caught the stubborn set to his jaw and the resolve burning in his large, shining eyes. "Those with the power, the connections, controlled the knowes at first... well, it can be argued that they largely do to this day, while those who are considered the 'lesser' Fae were and are forced to band together to survive. I've... well, I’ve been told that it's a proving ground of sorts, to winnow out those who can rise to the top, who can survive." Judging from the bitter twist to his lips, he didn't think much of that theory.

Neither did Renee, as the water in the pools crashed about in thunderous waves, at least for a few seconds. "I grew up in one of those 'proving grounds'," she said, her voice too quiet, too controlled against the backdrop of the tumultuous water. "There was... oh, call it a gang, if you will, a gang of Fae who realized that they could make _their_ fortune off of the misfortune and addictions of others. Opium for humans, goblin fruit for some of the ‘lesser’ Fae and changelings." She shuddered a little as she ran her hands over her pale hair. "I discovered that due to my unique bloodline, I could alter things a little. Make the drugs more potent, make them purer, and for the right price even help people with their withdrawals." Sorrow twisted her features. "I... I was a different person back then. It was a different world."

Oddly enough, Neil nodded as he gave her a look of sympathy. "I was young, but... I remember some of the battles fought over knowes, remember how careful you had to be because mortals still believed in us. Now... now it seems like it's settled, but only because people gave too much power away."

Power to made-up courts like the SEC.

Andrew didn't care about Renee's regret or the ‘good old days’ or any of that, he cared about an egotistical prick messing with him and making said prick pay. "Save the reminiscing for another time - what the fuck is in me and how do we get it out?" The SEC was supposed to give him an antidote when he proved himself in control of his talent - which obviously never was going to happen. He also was beginning to wonder if the 'happy juice' somehow was stymieing him from being able to fully gain control of his emotions and hence keep them affecting his magic.

"Oh." Renee's eyes widened at that while Neil wrapped the robe even tighter around him and edged a little more into the shadows as if he could distance himself from the conversation somehow. "Well, in theory I should be able to help with that."

'In theory', how wonderful. Still, Andrew felt like pulling out his blades and slicing along his veins right then to drain the vile stuff from his blood, to keep Riko and the SEC from controlling him a second longer. "Then do it, do it _now_ ," he ordered her through gritted teeth.

She shook her head as she slid her hands into the full sleeves of her pale blue sweater. "It's not as easy as that, not with something this... this insidious. It's potent and nasty, would probably take everything in you and then some."

"I don't care," he told her as he stepped forward until he was not quite in her personal space. "I'm not going to let Riko win or for some damn potion to beat me. I refuse to let anything control me, so either you get it out or I do."

Renee held his gaze for a few seconds then sighed as if she had figured out how he’d do it, if she left it to him. "I can't do it alone," she confessed, then looked aside. "Neil?"

The shadow walker had gone to sit on one of the benches, seemingly content to be forgotten. "What, _me_? Why me?" He shivered as if cold even as he glared at Andrew. "He's the reason I'm stuck here, dammit, and then there's tonight!"

"Yes, but do you really want Riko to have his way on this?" Renee all but wheedled as she gave him one of her sickening sweet smiles. Neil's venom held out against it for about four seconds, which would have been amusing to see if Andrew wasn't still fighting the urge to claw his veins open, while the spirits hovered around him in attempt to provide comfort.

"Fine," Neil said, his tone one of pure surliness. "But I don't owe him anything anymore for him going off to get me what I need from the Dark Road."

That worked for Andrew, especially since the idiot didn't know about what Wymack had said earlier. "Agreed." Then he looked at Renee. "Why do you need him?"

"Because of the bond between the two of you."

"Wait, what? He's the one with the geas?" Neil asked, his expression at first incredulous and then furious.

"Yes, and you just agreed to help him," Renee pointed out, which made Neil snarl in old Fae, probably in anger over missing his chance to break the bond that kept him stuck at the Foxhole Court for another two weeks. Andrew would be entertained by that, but his sense of humor was in short supply just then; Renee seemed to pick up on that since she continued with the explanation. "I need you to give him some energy while I remove the potion from him, which you should be able to do because of the bond."

Neil stopped cursing long enough to stare at her as if she was insane. "What energy?" he asked as he stood up, and as if to prove his point, wavered on his feet a little. "I haven't had a full meal in months and then he had to drag me out into the mortal world tonight and force me around in some metal contraption and-" Neil shook his head while he pushed back the damp curls falling onto his face. "The soaking and the teas that Abby gave me helped, but I don't have a lot to spare." He glanced around a little then laughed, the sound lacking humor. "Unless you have someone you want to get rid of or don't like." As he spoke, he waved his right hand in the air, which made the full sleeve of the overlarge robe slip back and reveal the bright silver of his gauntlet.

"No," Renee told him with a slight frown. "So there's nothing you can do?" Her clear voice contained an obvious tone of pleading.

Neil gazed at her for a couple of seconds then sighed. "Maybe, I don't know. I can try at least, but it won't be much."

That prompted her to smile, the expression wide and bright. "Anything you can provide would wonderful."

"Great," Andrew said in a flat tone as he crossed his arms over his chest. "So happy for you both, save the hugs and kisses for afterwards, after you actually do something."

That earned him a sour look from Neil. "You really that set on him coming through this alive?" he asked Renee.

"Hmm, he grows on you, give him some time," she told him.

"I don't think immortality works that way."

"More magic, less bitching," Andrew demanded as he narrowed his eyes while the spirits grew anxious once again. Renee instantly appeared trite, but Neil dared to give him a cool look in return.

"I need your hand," Renee said as she slipped her hands from her sleeves, a knife held in the right and the left extended with the palm upward. Andrew only hesitated for a moment before he placed his right in hers, which she turned palm upward as well so she could cut a thin wound in the meaty flesh of its heel with the sharp blade.  As soon as the blood began to well, she drew in a deep breath while he felt....

He felt a deep ache in his very bones, in the innermost parts of his body, his being. It felt as if she was reaching into every inch and crevice of him, was sending tendrils into his entire being and sucking something out of him, sucking out something white and watery. Andrew could see Renee's lips move but all he could hear was the rushing of his own blood, that and the wailing of the spirits as they pressed against him to hold him upright, their presence an odd comfort despite the awful ache in his body and bones - at least until he saw Neil jerk and come close. The wailing grew louder as most of the spirits pulled away, and then a slight trickle of light poured into Andrew from a spot of heat on his right wrist. It felt so good, but of course it didn't last, it wasn't enough and darkness mixed in with the pain to pull at him. The last thing he was aware of was a sudden rush of wailing and someone calling out his name before a flood of warmth and then silence.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> Eeee... yeah, okay. So, you learned some about Renee's past here. And the deal with Andrew on the potion and the effect with the potion on Andrew (did that seem to come out of nowhere? I tried, honest). I wanted to do something slightly different with drugged Andrew because let's face it, it Fae and the Fae will always have a 'twist' to things to screw you over.
> 
> So the next chapter will deal with things for Andrew (and Neil).
> 
> And thank you so much for the all the comments! The comments and kudos are so greatly appreciated (they help motivate me, honest) - I'm about halfway through the craziness (we move tomorrow!) and hoping to have more time to write (and respond to comments and a bunch of other stuff!) soon. Oh how I hope....  
> *******


	5. Back from the Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! Sorry for the wait but it's a new chapter!  
> Very vague references for some dark stuff that has happened in previous chapters, but nothing explicit.  
> *******

*******

Waking up in pain wasn't an unusual experience for Andrew - there were all those years in foster care and the various foster homes, the nights working as a bouncer at Eden's Twilight then the potion-driven decades at the Foxhole Court where he hadn't cared much about who or what he fought in exchange for a few rare flashes of real emotion. No, waking up with his body one throbbing, hollowed-out ache wasn't anything new, but the lack of voices in his head coupled with no annoying, itching burn of mania clawing through his veins along with a muffled sense of panic and rage oddly removed?

That was new, was new and utterly unwelcome.

Bits of memory floated to the surface, disjointed flashes of images and emotions which made his mind ache as much as his body, which made him feel a dull, muted pulse of anger so unlike anything he'd experienced in years that he paused in piecing things together examine it for a few seconds, to poke at the feelings he normally would ignore or push aside. Emotions which were no longer artificially enhanced or twisted by the SEC's potions, which now seemed deflated and lifeless as burst, empty balloons in a windowless room, all the potent gas which had filled them set free while they were left crumpled on the floor.

Renee had hollowed Andrew out of more than just the 'happy juice' it seemed. Or maybe not Renee, not really, but her little 'cure' had ripped away the illusion of feelings that Andrew had worn for so very long and pulled out all the ridiculous stuffing inside of him, of things like 'happiness' and 'sadness' and....

'Hollow ache' summed things up rather well.

Andrew remembered coming back from Eden's Twilight to face Wymack's familiar disapproval and Wild's wrath, remembered Neil proving to be more of a fox than a rabbit with how he'd slipped away while Andrew had been 'preoccupied' with Roland. He remembered his sudden realization about the clues Renee had been dropping lately and how unusual it had been, his treatment of the shadow walker. That had led to the confrontation with the naiad, the truth about what the SEC had done to him and the revelation about not-so-sweet Renee's past, and Andrew demanding that she remove the potion from his body before he did. Neil had been drafted into whole mess and then....

Andrew frowned as he gave up on prodding at his dulled emotions and disjointed memories to reach out for the spirits which were always around him, were always with him, always whispering to him (except on the Dark Road), and couldn't 'feel' more than a couple of them - the 'youngest' ones at that. The recently dead who had found their way to him in the last few weeks or months, the young man and the middle-aged woman, the little girl who never said much outright but who would murmur to him often - that was it.

"Where are the others?" he asked as he forced himself to sit up, his body slow to respond and joints flaring with a buried deep fire which he ignored. "What happened to them?"

The little girl whirled around the bed while the woman fussed with the blankets and the man knocked over bottles on the nearby table in Abby's lab. He had to repeat the question before the woman whispered that they were 'gone', whatever that meant, and by then Bee came over to the bed, her expression one of exhausted wariness.

"Andrew, you're awake.” She held out a mug filled with something that smelled herbal and not at all sweet between her hands, so he dismissed it with a flat look. “How are you feeling?”

He managed an abortive wave of his right hand as he focused his attention on the spirits. “What do you mean by ‘gone’?” he asked, his voice raspy and low from the dryness of his throat and a lingering soreness he had a disturbing impression that might be due from him screaming at some point in the past. “Gone _where_?”

The girl murmured something too fast and high-pitched for him to understand and the young man threw another bottle while the woman tucked the blanket against his chest before whirling away, all of them too agitated to tell him what he wanted to know. Meanwhile, Bee stood still until the spirits settled then stepped closer to the bed.

“I made it as palatable as I could, so drink it since it’ll help,” she said as she held out the mug.

“Fuck off,” Andrew snarled, unwilling to drink just anything someone offered him ever again, even Bee; he would have backed the words with magic but his was almost completely drained from whatever Renee had done and the spirits were too unsettled to do more than hover around him. At least, as long as Bee appeared to pose no obvious threat.

Bee continued to hold out the mug, her expression exhausted yet undaunted. “I swear to you that it only contains healing herbs in it, a draught to restore your energy and help undo the damage from the potion and the sudden detox.” When Andrew continued to give her a flat look, she sighed. “Drink it and I’ll tell you what happened, to you and your spirits.”

That stirred a faint interest in Andrew, something other than the gnawing ache and the odd, distant panic and anger which continued to burn in the back of his mind as if it belonged to some unknown spirit – except spirits didn’t feel like that. They didn't feel like much of anything, were wisps of energy and echoes of thoughts inside of his head, not this… this sense of 'other'.

First thing first, though, and that was answers. "How cutthroat of you, Bee. Careful, the illusion of the sweet, harmless woman is slipping," he warned as he struggled to sit upright on the bed; he was still dressed in the clothes he'd worn for the night out, but someone had removed his shoes and his armbands, he was displeased to note; he could barely summon enough magic to sense that the bands with the silver and metal blended knives were tucked on the shelf above his bed. While he had the girl fetch them for him, Bee approached with the mug.

"It seems to be a time for illusions to be shattered, doesn't it?" she asked, and didn't even blink when the armbands fell onto the bed. "For truths to be revealed at long last." She set the mug down on the small table near the bed then sat down in the chair by it with her arms clasped in her lap, the perfect picture of a concerned matron with her grey-streaked hair pulled back in a messy bun and dressed in a wrinkled dark blue skirt with a loose sweater as if more concerned with comfort than anything else. "Drink that first, as it'll help clear your head."

"And how do you know so much about my head?" Andrew asked as he set the armbands on his lap, too exhausted to pull them; he trusted Bee for the most part, but finding out about the potion had been a revelation to make him reevaluate things.

She met his gaze and held it without looking away, and allowed a rare bit of frustration, anger and remorse to show on her face before she spoke. "Because Renee was able to tell Abby and me a few things before she passed out, and then we... well, there was some of the poison she pulled from your blood which we were able to examine." For a moment the anger increased before Bee took a deep breath, held it for a moment then let it out in a slow manner. "There's that for now, and she's off gathering some special herbs that'll ensure that there are no more effects from some of the more insidious ingredients they used in that-" Her lips twisted as she shook her head. "Knowing you, you may find some satisfaction in that the potion contained a few exceedingly rare and expensive, one could say almost fabled items which had to cost the SEC dearly, which is in part why Abby failed to detect them."

Had to have cost the Moriyamas dearly, Andrew surmised as he tapped his fingers against the knives sheathed inside one of his armbands. "So what was it supposed to do? Drive me mad?"

"Basically. From what I can tell it was to build up your aggression while seeming to control it, to twist it up so much inside of you that one day you'd break and turn on people." When all Andrew did was stare at her, she sighed. "On the people closest to you, most likely, considering how these things work. It was a very nasty, potent spell and we're amazed you held out so long." Then she smiled a little. "Well, maybe not so amazed, considering it's you."

He narrowed his eyes at her as he picked up the mug then blew on it to cool it a little, appeased enough to drink the damn thing. As expected, it tasted horrible, of fresh green things with a hint of mint, but after he forced himself to swallow the first mouthful he did notice how his head cleared a little and his throat felt better so he didn't stop until the mug was empty. As he set it down on the table, he gave Bee a pointed look.

"Ah yes, now it's my turn, isn't it?" She smiled a little as she fussed with a pleat of her long skirt. "The spirits, yes?"

"Why are they 'gone'?" he demanded to know as he picked up one of the armbands since he finally had the energy to pull it on, uncomfortable without its familiar weight on his forearm.

The smile faded from Bee's full lips. "They care about you very much, you know, your spirits." The words and the solemn tone in which she spoke them made Andrew pause and gaze at her once more as a feeling of dread filled him. "Do you remember how Renee removed the potion from you?"

"She used her water magic to pull it from my blood," he bit out as memories of intense pain skittered through his mind.

"It's more a unique blend of her naiad and maenad bloodlines, but yes, she used her magic to pull it from your blood," Bee agreed. "Except the potion - the spell - was designed to not... hmm, you could say it wasn't designed to give up so easily, which she suspected and so that's why she asked Neil for his help." Her expression became intent as she gazed back at Andrew. "He gave you everything he had to keep you from dying, but it wasn't enough."

Andrew recalled someone calling out his name and a rush of heat before he assumed passing out, and was more than a little surprised to learn that Neil had tried so hard on his behalf, especially after everything that had happened earlier in the night. "Yet somehow I'm still here, and I fail to see how this has anything to do with the spirits," he drawled.

"I'm getting to that," Bee told him with a hint of annoyance. "From what Renee told us, she feared that her actions were about to result in both of your deaths, except that several of your spirits then intervened."

"My spirits." Andrew frowned at that, then shook his head as the feeling of dread returned, as he remembered what had happened when Neil had first awakened in Abby's lab. "Wait, don't tell me that's what 'they're gone' means, dammit," he ground out through clenched teeth as he once again reached out for them, for the souls who had been with him for so long, some of them years. Who had strove to protect him and buffer him from the world, to shield him from it and its cruelties, while he watched over them in return, while he gave them energy and focus to keep them whole, to keep them from fading away to nothingness. Only now they were gone and he'd let them down.

"I'm sorry," Bee whispered since she knew how important the spirits were to him, how they were an extension to him and his magic. "Renee said they... well, they did it for you, Andrew. It saved you and-"

"I don't care," he spat out. "They shouldn't have done it." He wasn't worth that sacrifice, even if they were already dead.

"But they did," Bee continued while the remaining spirits spun about due to Andrew's agitation. "They... oh, I guess you could say they threw themselves at Neil or something, made his own talent react and gave him enough energy to save the both of you."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" He clenched his hands into fists as he glared at her, as he willed her to shut up.

"No," Bee admitted with a sad smile. "It's the truth, though, and it's owed to you."

It was yet one more thing he was 'owed' - by the Moriyamas, by Riko, over the whole 'potion' trick. One more reason to ensure that the Moriyamas paid for everything they'd done - and not just to him. For breaking Kevin's hand and crushing his spirit. For the still healing scars on Neil's body and the way the shadow walker remained just out of reach of everyone's touch.

Neil… Andrew focused on the strange emotions in the back of his mind for a few seconds as he thought about the messed-up Fae. A Fae who didn’t seem very happy at the moment. Well, join the club. “They shouldn’t have done it,” he repeated.

“Hmm, well they did, and I for one am thankful for it.” Bee’s smile returned as she picked up the empty mug. “It would be very boring without you around.”

Andrew clicked his tongue at that as he resumed sliding on his armbands, and then something occurred to him. “Where’s Neil?” he asked as he leaned forward to look back in the one corner of Abby’s lab where the shadow walker usually tucked himself into unless someone dragged him out into the knowe. The corner was empty, which might explain why Neil felt so panicked and upset.

Bee was quiet for a moment while she glanced at the inside of the mug and then sighed. “Do you realize that you’ve been unconscious for almost sixteen hours?”

That statement made him pause in tugging down his sleeves over the armbands. “No.” He frowned at that, since he normally recovered quickly from things, especially after he came into his talent.

“Yes, you have.” Bee tapped her fingers against the mug a couple of times while she spoke, her gaze wandering to where the spirits were messing with some of Abby’s drying herbs. “Allison’s tending to Renee, but Neil… well, he’s been a bit… I suppose ‘unsettled’ is the best word for it, since last night. He’s not letting anyone get near him for some reason and has found himself a new spot in the garden.”

Abby was probably beside herself over her precious Neil having a fit like that, not that Andrew cared any except that her and Wymack would be on _him_ to go fetch some more grey fruit sooner rather than later. “How sad.” He might no longer have an irrational need to torment… Andrew frowned as he thought about Neil for a moment, as an image filled his mind of large blue eyes half obscured by tousled auburn curls and bright white teeth teasing at a full bottom lip and- right, best if Neil had every reason to leave as soon as the half moon hung in the sky above once again.

“Where’s Kevin? Hounding Neil for more stories about the Dark Road or passed out drunk in the library?” He could always send a spirit off to look for the coward, but he was loathe to have any of the remaining ones too far from him at the moment.

For some reason Bee seemed to wince at the question while she stood up from the chair. “Sixteen hours,” she reminded Andrew as she stepped back. “During that time David locked down the knowe, but it became clear that several important errands needed to be run.” She tapped her fingers once more against the mug. “He went with Abby to retrieve what’s needed for your elixir, but while Neil received enough energy from the spirits to keep the both of you alive, he needs more sustenance than that.”

Andrew was on his feet in such a rush that he felt dizzy for a couple of seconds, and only the spirits prevented him from falling onto his face. “Dammit, do _not_ tell me that Kevin went to the Dark Road without me!” For the last several years, ever since they had made their agreement, Kevin hadn’t gone _anywhere_ without Andrew at his side. And now the coward had gone back to the Dark Road without Andrew, all for _Neil_?

Bee nodded while the spirits tore at the sheets on the bed which Andrew had just vacated. “Dan and Matt went with him this time – Andrew, it was _his_ idea,” she insisted, her voice raised over the sound of tearing linen. “I don’t know if he feels a bit of guilt over what happened with Neil when the five of you went out or what, but he offered to get what Neil needed.”

Kevin probably just wanted to make Neil feel indebted to him to keep up the whole ‘answers in return for food’ thing since Wymack had threatened to put an end to it, most likely. “When did they leave?” Andrew could stand on his own by that point, so he took a cautious step forward then continued toward the door when he didn’t collapse.

“A few hours ago, so judging from how long it took you and Kevin last time, they should return soon.” Bee followed along at a careful distance, mindful of Andrew’s need for space and the spirits twirling around him in a protective manner. “Where are you going?”

He ignored her as he lurched forward, grateful for the little girl when she opened the door so he could stumble out into the hallway. One of the Brownies – Pris – was quick to get out of his way as she carried what looked to be some fresh vegetables from one of the gardens to the kitchen, and Andrew thought he heard Bee mumble something about ‘stubborn bastards’ along the way when he careened against a wall or two but refused to go down.

There was a sense of watchfulness to the surroundings, a rustling to the trees and shrubs, a tension to the air due to the knowe being on ‘lockdown’ – Andrew had been at the Foxhole long enough to experience it twice before, times when Wymack had worried about a possible attack and so strengthened the magical barriers protecting the knowe. One of those times had been when they’d brought Kevin to the knowe, and now it was because of Andrew.

No one who wasn’t sworn to Wymack could enter the Foxhole Court, and even then only those with special privileges could freely enter and exit at will. Andrew wondered how long Wymack would keep the knowe locked up, because sooner or later people would notice that fact. They would notice and wonder why, and they would either figure out that Andrew was no longer taking the tainted potion (especially when someone from the SEC attempted to drop off a new batch) or they would start talking about what – or _who_ – the Foxhole Court could possibly be hiding.

Wouldn’t it be so fun then?

He didn’t so much find Neil as he found his brother and his cousin sitting beneath a large oak tree toward the edge of the main garden, with Nicky staring up at the branches with a beseeching expression on his face while Aaron sat with his back against the trunk while he read a book. “Aw come on, Neil, you can’t stay up there forever!” Nicky called out.

There was a vicious spat of old Fae in response, so Andrew figured out that he’d found one idiot shadow walker, right before he fell flat on his face.

While Nicky pleaded with Neil to come down, Aaron must have caught sight of Andrew because he looked up from his book and frowned. “Should you be out of bed?” he asked, his tone one of mild interest.

“-down before you fall- eh? Andrew?” Nicky looked over at Andrew and gasped. “Andrew! What are you doing?”

Andrew ignored the question as he lurched forward the last few steps toward the tree and then basically collapsed onto the soft ground just out of reach of Aaron and the pest. Nicky made to grab for him, but the spirits kept him at bay while Aaron grunted once then resumed reading his book, something about healing herbs. “What are you doing out here?”

“Abby asked us to keep an eye on Neil,” Aaron explained, the sourness in his voice making it clear that he wasn’t pleased with the task.

"Should _you_ be out here?" Nicky asked, worry evident in his voice as his hand fluttered about with the thwarted need to fuss. "You still look awful and there’s something wrong with your face."

Andrew gave him the finger as he lay back on the plush grass beneath the tree and looked up into the dense foliage above; it took some effort, but he could just make out the dark-clad figure tucked into a fork of thick branches. He was about to call out if Neil was a cat now instead of a rabbit when he remembered the idiot's reaction to being called anything like that, remembered what had happened in the common room with the asshole Seth. His lips pressed together as bitterness flooded his mouth, at the realization that he wasn't the only one with certain detested words.

"I didn't know rabbits liked to climb," he settled on after a few seconds.

There was more swearing in old Fae as a few loose leaves wafted to the ground. "I'm not a rabbit," Neil shouted down in English as he shifted on the branches, his eyes glowing an eerie blue from his spot in the shaded canopy; Andrew thought he knew why Neil had switched to the tree from Abby's lab.

"You'll be roadkill if you fall from up there," Aaron muttered as he turned a page in his book, which prompted snorts of derision from both Andrew and Neil.

"Kevin's off fetching more of your weird fruit for you, so stop sulking and get your ass down here."

There was more swearing for a moment as Neil moved about on the branches, which prompted some muttering from Nicky as Andrew's cousin stared with growing concern upward and even Aaron looked away from his book to watch with a mild interest as if to see if Neil would fall. Unfortunately, it appeared that Neil had some experience with tree climbing - that and considering the flashes of silver that Andrew caught, the gauntlet was helping him to grip onto the branch as he squirreled his way even higher.

"I didn't ask him to go," Neil shouted at them. "I don't want to be here, I _hate_ being here!"

"Less than two weeks," Andrew told him. "Then you're free to go." Though he'd had his chance last night, if he'd been willing to go back on his word to Renee. Guess Neil wasn't an oath-breaker, even if he was an idiot.

"Two weeks-" For some reason Andrew reminding Neil about the geas set off the shadow walker, as a new spate of old Fae started up and Nicky yelped as a few acorns rained down along with some more leaves. Aaron's face twisted with annoyance as he brushed a couple of the leaves from his book then he looked over at Andrew with something akin to contemplation while the spirits shielded Andrew from the sudden downpour.

Andrew frowned at his brother with the silent query of 'what?'.

"Any reason why you seem to enjoy riling him up so much?"

"No more than anyone else," Andrew said as Neil continued with his rant which, yes, did seem a bit much.

"Right, like that explains last night and everything." Aaron's expression took on a mocking edge as he went back to reading his book.

"I think someone's been sniffing too many ground herbs," Andrew proclaimed as he wiggled his shoulders a little on the ground to find a more comfortable spot while Nicky made a low moaning sound.

"Andrew, do something," his cousin demanded. "He's going to hurt himself!"

And Andrew was supposed to care? Also, do what? There was no way that Andrew could crawl up that tree considering his state, and the spirits weren't going anywhere near the idiot. There was his magic... which couldn't do much more than bend a willow branch at the moment, so Andrew was just going to close his eyes and wait for Kevin's return.

" _Andrew_!"

"He's not the only one about to be hurt," Andrew promised, even if all he felt at the moment was a dull sort of annoyance over Nicky's antics. Still, the words and his right hand stroking along his left inner arm were all it took to quiet Nicky down, and he managed to get a short nap in while the spirits watched over him despite Neil's angry buzzing in his head (was it stronger than before?) and his displeasure over Kevin's actions. With his displeasure over several things, really, but Kevin was at the top of the list at the moment.

The sound of raised voices jolted him awake, as did the soft murmur of the spirits in his head; he opened his eyes to see that the sun had begun to set and that Kevin, Dan and Matt were rushing in the direction of the tree with their weapons out and their clothes in disarray - there was a cut slashed across Matt’s chest and a bruise on the left side of Dan's face, while Kevin appeared rather shaken at the moment. Still, Matt carried a large sack over his back while Dan and Kevin had a few canteens draped over their shoulders, so Andrew assumed that they had at least been somewhat successful in their mission.

"Oberon's blood they're going to kill us," Kevin babbled as he ran right up to Andrew.

Or perhaps it was a disaster, Andrew surmised as he hoisted himself onto his feet with no little effort. So much for Kevin going off by himself and proving what a big boy he was, all grown-up and capable like a proper drunk.

"What did you fuck up now?" he asked as he fought off a fresh wave of vertigo.

"Moriyama," Kevin gasped as he came to a sudden halt in front of Andrew with his bloodied sword grasped in his right hand, "there were Evermore knights there again."

"Lots of them," Matt added as he dabbed at the still bleeding cut on his chest. "We were in trouble until those freaky wolves showed up," there was some rustling in the tree at that comment, which made Dan look up and frown, "but one of the assholes got away before us and the wolves could finish them off."

That wasn't good, and it explained Kevin's latest panic attack. "This is what happens when you think for yourself," Andrew told the coward while he wondered if Renee could be persuaded to break the geas early somehow. Except then someone would have to convince Wymack, the bleeding heart, to let Neil go when the fool would be determined to keep protecting him - Wymack and Dan and the rest of the suicidal pack. "How long did Wymack say he'd be gone with Abby?" he asked Dan while Kevin stood there gasping for air and in desperate need of a backbone.

"Ah, at least a day or two, considering some of the things she had to find. It's in part why he put the place in lockdown," Dan explained before she winced. "Which turns out to be a good thing, if we're going to have company."

Andrew gave her a blank look for that comment before he gazed upward. "Well, any comments from a certain tree-loving fox?"

"Why did you-" There was some more rustling and what sounded to be scratching on bark before the dark shape crept lower along the branches; Neil didn't come to the ground, but he all but slunk his way low enough that he could sit with his feet dangling down and still remain out of reach of even Matt, who joined in with everyone but Andrew and Aaron in gaping at the shadow walker and the fluid way he'd navigated the branches. "Don't call me that," he scolded Andrew, but unlike with the cat nicknames, it didn't seem to have struck a pain-filled spot - or at least, that much of a pain-filled or traumatized spot.

That meant it was fair game.

“Riko’s going to come for us,” Kevin muttered as he stared at the weapon in his right hand.  “Wymack can’t keep him out forever, he’s too powerful.”

Dan gave him an annoyed look for that while Neil glared and said something in Fae which made Kevin flinch. For his part, Andrew had a spirit pick up an acorn for him, which he threw at Neil to get the idiot’s attention. “Use English.” Not even Bee could understand old Fae.

Those unnatural eyes narrowed in Andrew’s direction. “I told him that Riko’s a pus-filled sack of arrogance and stupidity shaped like a man and it’s fools like Kevin who give him so much power.”

“Huh, nice,” Matt murmured while Dan grinned.

It was difficult to argue with the idiot, but Andrew refused to let himself be distracted. “Very descriptive. Does that mean you’re not concerned with him and his people showing up here to drag you back? Feel the urge to return to your precious Dark Road yet?”

Dan's smile faded as she took to scowling at him. “Dammit, Andrew, why are you so against Neil staying here, where he’s safe? We’re not giving in to the Moriyamas, now or never!”

Meanwhile, Neil gave Andrew a look of pure loathing for some reason. “I didn’t think you were like them, even after last night. I should have known better.” While Andrew frowned at that cryptic statement, Neil hopped to his bare feet then climbed higher up into the tree, until he was lost among the foliage; sharp, biting anger and something akin to pain stabbed into Andrew, into that back part of his mind, strong enough to make him draw in a quick breath before he realized that they were Neil’s emotions and not his own.

Renee had some explaining to do just then.

“What the hell?” Nicky said as he stared up into the rustling branches. “What did he mean, Andrew?” He glanced over at Andrew and then blanched at whatever expression he saw. “Uhm, never mind.”

“Hey, Neil! Neil? We got some food for you, don’t you want some, buddy?” Matt called out as he held up the sack of fruit, seeming to have forgotten about the wound on his chest. “Aren’t you hungry? Aren’t you-“

Dan reached over to tap him on the arm while she shook her head. “Leave him alone for a little bit, something’s bothering him.” The quick glance she gave a still shaken Kevin made it clear what that ‘something’ was. “Come on, let’s put this stuff in Abby’s work room.” She reached over to take the canteens from Kevin, which he allowed her to do before wiping at his face with his trembling left hand.

Andrew watched the coward finally sheathe his sword – without cleaning it – then sighed. “Come on,” he told Kevin, which seemed to perk up his friend. However, they weren’t going off for something to drink, but to Renee’s room to find out what the hell had happened after Andrew had passed out.

Kevin realized that soon enough when Andrew stalked past their rooms and down the hallway toward Renee’s. “Uhm, where are we going?”

“For something you love almost as much as alcohol and bemoaning your impending doom – answers.” They reached Renee’s quarters, where Andrew didn’t bother knocking at all before he opened the door. He got only a few steps inside with Kevin not far behind when Allison stomped out of Renee’s bedroom with an impressive glower on her face and her sword held at the ready.

“Why are you being even more of an inconsiderate asshole than usual?” she demanded to know as she held the blade at throat level – at least for Andrew. “Hmm?”

Before Andrew could answer or have a spirit make Allison eat her own weapon, Renee appeared in the doorway; she appeared washed out and was dressed in a pale pink robe with her hair disheveled and falling mostly in her face. “It’s good to see that you’re doing better.”

“After you almost killed me? Yes.” Andrew had one of the spirits knock Allison’s blade aside since Renee would complain about all the blood on the rugs and walls.

Renee gave him a faint smile as she recognized his restraint while she made her way to the comfortable-looking couch in the main room, where she sat down. “I told you that it was nasty.”

Andrew gave her a flat look for that. “Just how ‘nasty’ did it turn out to be?”

Allison glanced back and forth between the two of them before she rolled her eyes and sheathed her sword. “Not nasty enough, obviously, since you’re still around.”

“Allison, that’s not very nice,” Renee chided, yet she shifted over on the couch so Allison could sit next to her, her smile returning once the Valkyrie was settled. “As for what happened….” Now Renee appeared pensive as she toyed with a strand of her hair, her attention once more focused on Andrew. “As I feared, the drug was incredibly insidious and resisted my efforts to remove it from your system. If it wasn’t for Neil and your spirits then you wouldn’t have survived it,” she told him, but there was something about the way she spoke, how she avoided looking him in the eye, which made him suspicious – that and Neil’s snit up in the tree. “In fact, you technically died at one point, but Neil brought you back with the help of your spirits.”

“And just what did it cost Neil to do that?” he asked as he leaned against the wall, his barely restored strength fading fast.

Renee gave the hair wrapped around her finger a quick tug. “Have you talked to Neil yet?”

That wasn’t a suspicious question at all, was it? “I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘talking’ since he’s being more cryptic and inane than usual.” When Renee took to frowning while Kevin glanced back and forth between her and Andrew and Allison appeared much too interested in the topic, Andrew resisted the urge to rub at his face while the spirits rifled through some skeins of yarn that Renee had lying about in the room. “Tell me what’s going on before I start stabbing people,” he said, his voice surprisingly even considering everything.

“Only if you swear to me that you won’t do just that when I explain things to you,” Renee said, and held his narrowed gaze until he sighed; he knew she was stubborn enough to remain silent until he gave in.

“I won’t _immediately_ stab anyone when you explain things.”

She seemed to realize that was the best promise she’d get from him, and nodded a moment later. “I had you form the geas with Neil because there’s a… well, a sense of resonance between the two of you due to your natures and your magic. You both have a tie to death, you being a necromancer and him with his Folús Sidhe bloodline.”

Andrew clicked his tongue as he slumped a little more against the wall. “Get to the point, puddle girl.”

“I’m trying to do that.” There was a rare hint of censure in Renee’s smooth voice just then. “I’m explaining that there’s a commonality between the two of you, something that made the geas set well.” While she spoke, Kevin shifted about in obvious discomfort and took to shaking his head.

“I know this already,” Andrew snapped. “You told me all of this to make me agree to the damn thing in the first place.”

“Wait, you knew about it and you let Neil go ahead with healing you?” Now Kevin appeared incredulous. “ _Both_ of you? You… you….” It was his turn to break into a harsh stream of Fae curses just then. Andrew merely stared at him for it, while Renee winced and Allison toyed with the collar of her dark gold tunic.

“Is anyone going to enlighten me with what’s going on or am I going to have something in common with the monster for once?” Allison asked in a bored tone, then arched an eyebrow when he gave her the finger for that comment.

Kevin stopped swearing to jerk his right hand through his hair. “Tell me it’s not as bad as I think,” he demanded of Renee. “That Neil’s not freaking out because the geas are now permanent.”

Wait, what? Andrew’s head jerked around from the cold look he’d been giving Allison to glare at Renee. “That’s _not_ true.” Even as he spoke, he could feel Neil’s seething temper and the sharp sting of the shadow walker’s panic beneath that emotion, a constant irritant in the back of his mind ever since he’d woken up. “That’s a damn lie.”

“I’m so sorry, Andrew, but it’s not.” Renee leaned forward with her hands clasped between her thighs and a remorseful expression on her face. “I didn’t think things through, didn’t think beyond the fact that Neil could use his talent to share energy with you.”

Andrew pushed away from the wall, and when Allison made to block Renee from him, had the spirits shove the Valkyrie aside on the couch. “Break the fucking geas,” he ordered her. “Break them _now_.”

To give her credit, she didn’t flinch from him or look away, she stayed still as he grabbed her by the front of the robe and yanked her forward. “I can’t, they’re permanent. Neil brought you back by giving you energy from your own spirits and himself. That went beyond sharing blood, it-“ She let out a gasp as Andrew tightened his grip on the robe, as the spirits flipped over a small end table and Kevin cursed in Gaelic while Allison struggled against the phantom hands holding her back. “I’m sorry,” Renee repeated.

For a moment Andrew almost went for his knives, for the metal warmed by his flesh and soaked in his magic, and then he shoved her back onto the couch and left without saying a word. Because really, what was there to say just then other than a litany of curses? Renee had removed the drug from his blood as he’d asked, had broken the hold the SEC had on him and ruined Riko’s plan.

She’d also bound him to another person, to _Neil_. To an abused Fae desperate to run, desperate to shun everyone and everything so he could hide away in a grey nightmare world – the only place where he felt _safe_. An almost broken Fae with too big blue eyes and a too-strong stubborn streak and way too many fucking issues whom Andrew found too damn interesting and so damn amusing to torment.

Whom Andrew thought too damn much about already and needed gone.

Andrew had almost reached his room when Kevin caught up to him, breathing heavily and eyes wide with some emotion. “Andrew! Andrew, slow down!”

He hadn’t realized that he’d been walking that fast, it seemed that fury had given him a needed burst of energy. “Fuck off,” he told the coward, not in the mood to talk to anyone just then.

“Look, it’s not all bad,” Kevin said in a rush as he held up his hands, the fingers of his left one curled in a little. “I know you wanted Neil gone but we can use him, he’s very powerful.”

Only the surprise of hearing the coward all of a sudden talk about the benefits of Neil staying kept Andrew from having the spirits shove Kevin face first into the wall, but the reprieve wasn’t going to last long, especially when Kevin kept talking. Especially when Kevin took Andrew’s surprise as an excuse to keep talking. “It’s unusual for a Fae to manifest both bloodlines like that, and his are rare. The reasons that the… the Moriyamas want him make him that much more useful for us, and there’s the gauntlet, too,” Kevin said in a hurry as he lowered his hands, the expression on his face one similar to when he lost himself in the fervor of some historical debate. “I can tell he’s hiding stuff about the Dark Road, that he’s holding things back. He _knows_ something. If he’s stuck here with us then he has to share that knowledge, has to-“

Kevin yelped when a knife was shoved into the wall near his head. “Shut. Up,” Andrew ordered his friend as he released the hilt of the blade. “Now go away.” He didn’t want to hear anything more about Neil and what the shadow walker ‘had’ to do now that he was bound to Andrew – now that they were bound _together_. Whatever the fuck that meant. He stared Kevin down until the coward made a loud gulping sound and walked away.

Andrew watched until he was certain that Kevin was on the way to his own rooms before he retreated into his, then headed straight to where he kept some alcohol. For all his taunts and jabs against Kevin, there was no way he was going to remain sober for much longer, was going to deal with the knowledge that he was magically bound to someone else for longer than a month without copious amounts of alcohol in his system. He realized that he needed to think about things, that he had to deal with the situation… it could just wait a little longer.

Neil, the idiot, apparently dealt with it by climbing trees and swearing in an almost dead language. Andrew as a bit more sophisticated than that and preferred whiskey-fueled oblivion.

*******

Neil punched a metal-clad fist into the main trunk of the tree when he felt a sense of euphoria wash through him; wonderful, it appeared that Andrew was almost at the pass-drunk stage of inebriation – something Neil was only familiar with from the few times when his wounds had been so bad that his mother had pressed so much alcohol on him after she’d tended his wounds to keep him docile enough that he wouldn’t react to the pain and do even more damage to himself than his father’s people had already done.

Neil didn’t care for alcohol. Just the thought of cheap, hastily distilled rye bourbon, of ‘rot gut’ or ‘moonshine’, as the humans had called it, of the heady port and brandy and goblin fruit wine that some of the Fae had passed on to his mother…. He struggled not to gag and throw up the little bit of potion remaining in his stomach just then, as his body ached from old wounds almost forgotten.

There was a tie between the scar snaking across his abdomen and the now useless runes sunk into his skin and bones, old mementos left by his father and mother. At the least, he would never need any more runes carved into him, not as long as he kept the gauntlet, but his father would oh so much love to add to the numerous scars he’d already engraved into Neil’s flesh, the cuts and burns and-

Neil shuddered as his metal-tipped fingers dug even deeper into the bark of the tree, until he let out a shuddering breath and forced himself to relax. Dammit, why had he agreed to help Renee the night before? To draw the poison out of Andrew? After everything the necromancer had done to him, after all the taunts and insults and poking questions, after the way he’d dragged Neil out into the mortal world and forced such vile things onto him, he should have said ‘no’. Should have stood there and watched while Andrew had died in the attempt to draw the drug out of his body – and that was _before_ Neil had found out that the rude necromancer was the one holding onto the geas binding Neil to the Foxhole Court.

If Neil had known that before he’d said ‘yes’, he could have watched on with glee while Andrew’s lifeforce had faded away, then slipped through the shadows back to the Dark Road.

 _Could have_.

Only he _had_ said ‘yes’, so he was now bound to the infernal bastard he should have let die. Neil could feel his mother’s small fists hitting his shoulders, back and head, could feel her fingers pulling at his hair, could hear her voice shouting in his head and calling him every type of fool for not letting Andrew Minyard die. Yet for all the truths he’d carefully skirted, all the times he’d run away, all the oaths he’d avoided… he couldn’t break the ones he’d sworn to in the end.

So now he was stuck in this damn knowe, unable to return to the Dark Road for the foreseeable future. Until he figured out a way around the geas, around Andrew’s hold on his ability to use his talent to slip through the shadows. Perhaps there could be a way to drag the rude bastard onto the Dark Road with him….

Hmm, what would happen if Andrew died? Just how strong were the new geas? Neil had already been a prisoner once, he wasn’t eager to be chained down again, to be trapped and at someone’s mercy, even if some of Andrew’s previous behavior was Riko’s fault due to the drug.

He was getting very tired of the Moriyama ‘influence’ in his life, of the bloodline casting such a dark shadow over his life. Of his father handing him over to the clan, of them hunting them down. Of Riko thinking that he owned Neil, of-

Realizing that the fingers covered by the gauntlet were once more digging into the poor tree, Neil let out a slow breath and forced himself to put his back against the wide trunk. In the end, it was hearing that Andrew had been one of those poor fools whom Riko had gloated over, had gone on about how he’d interfered with and messed up their lives with his power and influence which had led Neil to agree with Renee the night before, to help out Andrew. Because he knew all too well just how much Riko liked to hurt someone, how the bastard detested it when someone fought back and refused to give in.

Of course that small bit of altruism had come back to bite Neil in the end – his mother had been right in that he was best served looking after himself only, that worrying about anyone else was a grave mistake. Saving Abby had brought the Moriyamas’ attention down on him, and helping Andrew had placed a nice heavy collar around his own neck.

He’d taken to tracing the engraving of the gauntlet with his left thumbnail as a distraction from his unwelcome thoughts when Dan and Matt returned to the garden. “Hey, you have to be thirsty by now,” the dryad called out from the ground. “We have some water and fruit for you.” She held up a small canteen and a basket of fruit as if to make it clear that they weren’t expecting him to have to go down to the ground to fetch his meal.

“Ah….” He _was_ thirsty but he wasn’t in the mood to answer questions or riddles just then. So when Dan placed her hand against the thick trunk of the tree a moment later and had the branches reach down to grab the water and basket so they could carry the items up to Neil, he felt a sense of relief that he wouldn’t have to climb down. “Uhm, that’s… that’s nice of you.” Was it a trick?

“It’s the least we could do, all things considered,” Dan said. She waited until Neil grasped the small canteen and, after a cautious sniff, had some water before she continued. “I know Andrew’s all rough around the edges, but he’s not _that_ bad of person deep down inside. We’re glad that you helped him out last night.”

Neil didn’t respond to that, just gave her a respectful nod as he flipped back the dark orange cloth inside the basket to reveal the fruit tucked within; the sight of it made his mouth water, but he restrained himself to pick out one piece and examine it before he began to nibble on the tart item. His stomach rumbled with hunger and happiness as he finally ate something that could provide him nourishment. While he’d gotten a bit of a boost from the energy last night, enough to help heal some more of his remaining injuries and replenish his magic a bit better, it hadn’t done much for his hunger.

Once the fruit was gone and the small canteen drained dry, he looked at the ground to find Matt smiling up at him and Dan still leaning against the trunk with a pleased expression on her face. “Feeling better now?” she asked.

“A little,” he admitted. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Allison and Seth are guarding the outside way into the knowe, Aaron and Nicky are out on patrol, Renee’s helping Bee with some spells and charms, and Kevin and Andrew….” Dan’s smile slipped a little for a moment. “Well, they’re busy. Matt and I are tending to a few loose ends before we take over for Allison and Seth.”

Neil gave a slight nod to show that he followed along with all of that, while he wondered what ‘busy’ meant for Andrew – other than ‘drunk as hell’.

Dan’s smile returned for some reason. “Look, I want to know if you’re going to stand by us if the Moriyamas come calling. You don’t have to, you’re our guest, but Kevin seems to think you’re a good fighter and I have to admit, you’ve got some useful talents. We could use you.”

That was surprising, considering that they didn’t know him, that Andrew seemed to think that Neil was some sort of Moriyama spy.  He cocked his head to the side as he considered Dan’s offer – especially when he was bound to Andrew. The best he could hope for was the Moriyamas attacking and someone killing Andrew… except he didn’t know if that would be to his advantage.

Though if it meant that he would end up at Evermore again, then he was willing to take that risk.

“I’ll fight with you,” he told the dryad after some consideration. “Against the Moriyamas, at the least.”

Dan grinned at that while Matt let out a loud cheer. “Thank you, we appreciate that. Hopefully they won’t do something so stupid as attack a neutral knowe….”

“But they’re the Moriyamas,” Neil finished for her. “They’re used to getting what they want and not answering to anyone.”

“Yeah.” Her expression turned grim as she pushed away from the tree. “But not this time. We’re not going to give in to them, not going to bend our necks and bow our heads just because they think their name means something.”

Neil could get behind that, at least until he figured out how to break the geas. “They’ll expect you too, though.” Riko and Tetsuji were nothing if not arrogant. “You can use that to your advantage, at least at first.” It all depended on how insistent Tetsuji was in claiming that Neil was ‘owed’ to him, and how much he wanted Kevin back.

Then there was the matter of Riko realizing that Andrew had figured out the ‘trick’ with the potion.

“They’re not getting what they want,” Dan swore before she waved goodbye to Neil. “Rest up some more, we’ll be back later.”

“We can find you a real bed if you want one,” Matt called out to him, but Neil ignored the offer after so long of sleeping on the ground in the Dark Road. There had been all the years he’d been on the run with his mother as well, where he’d spent more than a few nights up in trees or the rafters of barns or even in the trestles beneath bridges – anywhere out of the way and someplace the people searching for them might not think to look. Between those odd places and sharing the occasional small beds with his mother, he’d learned to sleep very still, to lock his body in position so as to not jostle his mother and disturb her, to not fall out of wherever he was sleeping or give away his position. It didn’t take much to find a wide branch to make himself comfortable on and then force his body still, though he missed the comfort of the pack all around him, their warmth and solid presence.

He used a little of his strengthened magic to cast a protective spell around himself then did his best to ignore the feel of Andrew’s inebriated, jumbled emotions in the back of his mind like a niggling wound, and managed to get a few hours of rest. Enough sleep so he didn’t feel so exhausted when light began to creep back into the sky over the knowe, when the birds began to chirp and the pixies dart about and chatter. Since it was so early, Neil risked returning to the ground to wash up in the hot spring where he bathed and to use the small bathroom near them, but returned to the tree as quickly as possible.

It wasn’t long after he’d worked out an agreement with the pixies to craft them some simple jinxes woven out of thin willow branches in return for them supplying him with all the gossip they had about the knowe and its residents (it had been a trial, learning their language, but his mother had been a strict teacher who believed in using every possible advantage available to them, and his gift with languages had saved them more than once) when Renee appeared. She seemed tired and her motions were slow as if something pained her, yet an exhausted smile spread across her face when she spied Neil sitting on a branch with several pixies hovering around him and a couple on his shoulders.

“You seem to get along well with them,” she commented as she sank down to sit cross-legged on the ground.

He shrugged as he finished with the one jinx which would stun anyone who stepped on it for a good five or ten minutes, which the pixie with the brilliant purple wings snatched from Neil while laughing in delight as she mentioned something about the ‘stupid cat-seal’ before she flew away. “Just because they’re small doesn’t mean you don’t respect them, and they always know a lot of things.” The pixie on his left shoulder patted his cheek at that and asked for a jinx that would make someone smell rancid. “ _Can you find me some garlic to go with the willow_?” he asked it, and had to blink a couple of times at all the pixie dust that blew into his face when the tiny Fae flew off in a rush.

Renee stifled a giggle as she watched him craft another jinx. “I suppose that one should be careful going about the parts of the gardens that they consider theirs?”

Neil noticed how the pixies were fluttering around the naiad and gave her a slight smile. “One could say that.” He didn’t think she’d have much of a problem with the jinxes, especially since he hadn’t heard anything bad from the tiny Fae in her regard – mostly they complained about Seth being an asshole, about Aaron blundering about whenever he was in search of herbs for his spells, and Andrew… well, Andrew didn’t seem to give a shit about much of anything, which sometimes meant the pixies. He didn’t seem to go out of his way to bother them, like Seth, but he didn’t care if he disturbed them if they were between something he wanted or what his brother or Kevin needed, from what Neil could tell.

“I see.” Renee took to fussing with the folds of her yellow and white dress. “You seem rather skilled at making those.”

If it were anyone else, Neil would be bothered by the question, but Renee had told him something about her past, had revealed a part of herself to him so he felt a bit of truth was owed. “I don’t know a lot of magic, not much of the more formal stuff, but I know jinxes and curses,” he admitted. “Things that can be done quickly or with what you find all around you, things that’ll hurt your opponent.” Things that had kept him and his mother safe while they had run from his father and his father’s court.

She nodded as her smile took on a wistful edge. “It’s much the same with me. I’m learning a little from Bee and Abby, trying to move past what I’ve always been, but my magic is more of an instinctual thing. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to cast the impressive spells like Kevin does.”

Neil picked up a thin willow branch and held it between his fingers for a moment. “Will Kevin ever be able to do what you did for Andrew the other night?” He should hate Renee for what she’d done, for her part in binding him to the necromancer… but she’d done what she could to break Andrew from the hold another person had on him. Neil didn’t think she’d intentionally stuck him with Andrew or else he’d put to use his father’s talent once more even though he hated the gift.

Renee’s smile took on a bittersweet edge. “No, I doubt he could it so there is that.” Her hands stilled on her lap. “I am sorry for what happened, you know. If I had been a bit stronger, a bit more knowledgeable, then you wouldn’t have had to do what you did to save Andrew.”

He was taken back by her outright apology and almost dropped the twig while the pixies twittered around him in surprise. “It’s… help me figure out how to undo it,” he said after a moment’s pause. “There has to be some way to break the geas.”

Things were quiet for several seconds before Renee sighed. “I don’t want to give you any false hope, Neil, but I’ll try. However, I feel it’s best that you reconcile yourself to the fact that the bond between you and Andrew is most likely permanent.” She frowned as she held the small silver charm which hung around her neck between her fingers. “It’s almost as if it were fated.”

“I don’t believe in such things.” He _refused_ to believe in such things, because too much had happened to him in his life and if it had all meant to be because of some cruel being’s whims? His father’s abuse and his mother’s death, the useless attempts to run, to stay safe and only end up in the Moriyamas’ hands. To end up bound to a bastard of a necromancer.

“You need to have some faith that things will work out,” Renee said as she shook her head.

“Yes, because that’s gone so well for me so far,” Neil shot back, his voice thick with sarcasm. When her frown deepened and she appeared ready to argue with him, he took to talking to the pixies in their own language about possible jinxes and curses to place around the garden. They were hesitant at first, and then the air was filled with sparkling dust and multi-colored wings as they fluttered about to fetch him the various items he needed to hex the hell out of the knowe and to shout out requests in their high-pitched voices.

Renee sat at the base of the tree and sighed in disapproval at first, clever enough to figure out what was going on by watching Neil craft the small magical items and noticing what the pixies brought to him, and then to his surprise she started offering suggestions. He did some frowning of his own as he attempted to figure her out – on the surface Renee seemed calm and quiet, seemed peaceful, but there was a darkness to her which disquieted Neil, which put him on guard. It made sense when he thought about her past, about her maenad blood, and how the pixies showed her evident respect in not pulling on her hair or tearing at her clothes or doing any of their other little ‘tricks’ when enough of them were gathered together.

“Is it difficult to learn their language?” she asked as he worked on a jinx which would make someone dance a jig until either the spell was broken or they passed out in exhaustion (one of Renee’s suggestions).

Neil paused in crafting the jinx for a moment, his fingers aching from twisting about the branches so much and tired from casting all the spells even if they hadn’t required that much magic. “Not really, it’s more that you have to be careful when you first learn to speak it because they don’t appreciate it when you make mistakes.” He smiled at the pixie standing on his left knee, at the imperious expression on her face as she tapped her right foot in an obviously impatient sign for him to hurry up with her spell. “They’re very proud and don’t suffer fools.” That statement earned him several sharp outbursts from the pixies around him, most of it along the lines of ‘ _we most certainly don’t_!’.

Renee laughed at that, while Neil finished the jinx with the memory of tiny hands tugging on his hair and sharp nails scratching at his face and arms while he’d struggled to learn the temperamental Fae’s language. Perhaps it wasn’t as easy as he told Renee, but it hadn’t been anything worse than he’d put up with from his mother, and it had been a distraction of sorts, struggling to learn it, to do something to help out while on the run. It had kept him from thinking of how hungry and tired he was, how terrified he was of his father finding them, of how much the latest wounds hurt and- it had been a good distraction.

He handed over the jinx then held up his hands. “ _That should be enough for now, you don’t want to put out too many at once. See how everyone reacts to them and I can always make you more_.”

The pixie accepted the jinx with a sniff and a toss of her bright silver hair before she nodded in acceptance. “ _It’s a start_. _We’ll draw first blood and carry through to win the war_.” She bared her sharp teeth at him before she flew off with her part of their bargain, while Neil blinked a couple of times as he watched the rest of the pixies follow.

“Ah, they’re serious about this,” he warned Renee.

“Hmm, I did warn Seth about calling them flying gnomes and swatting at them all the time, and Aaron really should watch what flowers and herbs he harvests.” That said, all Renee did was shrug and then smile when she realized that she was covered in pixie dust.

Well, it wasn’t as if Neil cared all that much, not when they were his jinxes and he could negate them with ease, and not when the pixies weren’t upset with _him_. Not when it could probably benefit him in some way, chaos in the knowe that he’d be able to circumnavigate. He’d just stick to the shadows and watch everything unfold, take in everyone’s reactions and learn as much as he could, then put that knowledge about weaknesses and talents to good use, as he’d been taught.

If there was one thing he knew after all this time, it was how to make the most of a bad situation.

As if that thought had been a jinx or curse of sorts, Andrew’s voice rang out. “Aren’t the two of you a little big for pixies?” The necromancer approached the tree dressed in his usual black clothes, though that day they were baggier than usual, the dark circles beneath his eyes more pronounced and it appeared that he hadn’t bothered to shave at all due to the dark blond stubble shading his jaw and cheeks. Neil supposed that the man’s disheveled appearance was in part due to the headache and faint nausea he felt over the detested bond between them, along with exhaustion and displeasure. “Well, Renee at least.”

Neil wished that he’d kept at least one jinx for himself. “I’m taller than you, you bastard.” Even if it wasn’t by much, and Andrew did have the more impressive physique with his broad shoulders and chest, his strong back and muscular arms.

Andrew returned his look of loathing with one of boredom even as he gave Neil a two-fingered salute. “Yet you’re the one up in a tree all sparkly at the moment.” Then Andrew turned his attention on Renee as if he’d had enough of Neil. “All the shit going on and you’re sitting on your ass?” Now disgust shaded his emotions, even though he still sounded bored.

“Well I did spend some time helping Bee with a few spells and then came out here to check on Neil so I’ve been busy. What about you?” She gave him a bright smile while Andrew merely stared at her until he clicked his tongue.

“Time to leave idiots in trees alone and come with me.”

“All right.” Renee continued to smile as she rose to her feet. “What are we going to do?”

“Make sure that no one can get in,” Andrew told her, and that time a bit of annoyance crept into his deep voice as if he couldn’t believe that she’d asked such a stupid question. Neil watched from his perch as Renee waved goodbye to him, somewhat bemused over the fact that Andrew seemed intent on ignoring him, on ignoring the fact that they were bound together. Oh, he was no more eager to talk about the geas and what they meant than the necromancer, other than to come up with a way to break the damn things, but ignoring them weren’t going to make them go away.

Sooner or later they had to deal with them, had to deal with the fact that Neil couldn’t remain at the Foxhole Court forever, but it obviously wasn’t going to be anytime soon. So he made himself comfortable on the branch and rubbed at the pixie dust on his left wrist while he contemplated the fine bright powder and a spell or two he could craft with it.

*******

Andrew fought the sense of lethargy that had only gotten worse since he'd woken up in Abby's lab, not better and gripped his staff tighter as he patrolled the knowe with Renee - though all the whiskey he'd drunk the night before probably hadn't helped. The hangover he could ignore, but Abby better return soon to fix him up before the Moriyamas arrived.

Renee seemed to pick up on his unease and motioned to a bench up ahead in the main garden. "Do you want to take a short break? We've been checking the wards for almost an hour now."

"No," he told her, his voice steady and curt despite the ache in his bones and the quivering in his muscles; he pulled a little more energy from the earth to get him through until Abby returned with the new elixir.

"All right." She nodded at something and they continued to check the wards which sealed off the knowe from, well, everything, from the rest of the Fae realm and the mortal world, which kept the Foxhole Court safe and secure. Andrew knew that the others had already done so, but he didn't trust them with something so important, not when Seth was lazy and Matt easily distracted, when Dan didn't know shit about wards and Allison... well, Allison could be all right, when she gave a damn. No, best to check them himself so he knew that his family was safe.

They'd just finished a circuit around the knowe and were about to head to the armory to do an inventory of the weapons when Seth ran screaming something about bees into the building ahead of them, hands swatting about his head and face to strike at nothing that Andrew could see while he smacked into the doorway then continued onward. Andrew watched him for a moment then glanced at Renee, who had a slight, secretive smile on her face - a face still bearing a hint of pixie dust.

"If the asshole's hitting the goblin fruit right now, I'll save the Moriyamas the effort and gut him myself."

"Hmm, nothing that drastic, I'm certain," she replied as they entered the informal 'castle' of the knowe themselves.

Andrew had done his best to resist the mild curiosity he'd felt upon finding Renee with Neil that morning, the two of them covered in pixie dust and talking to one another - of _Neil_ talking to someone for once rather than spitting curses at them. At the sight of the shadow walker with his hair an even more unruly mess than usual and littered with tiny flowers, the sharp planes of his face highlighted by multi-colored dust and him sitting more or less out in the open for once (almost ten feet off of the ground, but not backed into a corner or hidden by branches).

At the sense of something other than panic and anger and confusion coming through the mental link for once, of bemusement and satisfaction and sadness.

He didn't like how unsettled he felt, sensing those emotions and knowing that someone else encouraged them in Neil, and blamed it on the lingering effects of having the poison pulled from his body, of almost dying (well, having died temporarily) the other night. Something was ‘off’ inside of him, but with a little time, a fancy elixir and the departure of a troublesome shadow walker (he didn’t care what Renee said, there had to be a way for Neil to leave, for the geas to be broken), then Andrew would be back to normal – whatever that was.

If it had been an unsettling sight, seeing Neil aglow with pixie dust and somewhat social with someone, then it was rather unpleasant to find a disheveled Kevin with bloodshot eyes, dark stubble on his face and the same clothes that he’d worn the day before with a couple of new, dubious stains already in the armory. “Is your plan to drive away the Moriyamas in disgust?” Andrew asked the coward as he leaned against the wall, the spirits an anxious flurry of motion around him.

Kevin cast him a baleful glare before he resumed counting the arrows – or at least, that’s what Andrew assumed he was doing, even if his eyes appeared a bit blurry. “We’re not stocked well enough for a long siege.”

“Considering that there’s only nine of us to fight, ten if you want to count Wymack which I don’t, then it’s not really going to be much of a siege in the first place,” Andrew pointed out. They had enough fighters for something quick and dirty, but nothing drawn out, especially since Aaron and Nicky couldn’t be counted on for much.

“Ten,” Renee said as she picked up her preferred weapons, the long-hilted, scythe-bladed kama.

Andrew gave her a flat look. “I said that I didn’t-“

“I’m not counting Wymack.” She smiled as she interrupted him and flipped the weapons about into a defensive position with a speed that made Kevin stumble into a row of shields. “Neil told Dan that he’d fight with us.”

“What, really?” Kevin’s annoyance faded as he righted himself, as something akin to eagerness and hope spread across his face. “Really?”

“Great, he can sprinkle pixie dust on them while he hides in the trees,” Andrew drawled as he stationed his own staff in front of him, just in case Renee got any ideas.

“You know he can do more than that,” Kevin argued as he straightened his sword belt. “He had proper training when he was younger and was good, could hold his own against me and Riko.” For a moment Kevin’s green eyes grew clouded as he thought about the past – at least until one of the spirits rattled the shields and startled him back to the present. “Uhm, yeah.” Kevin shook himself a little then rubbed at the scarred back of his left hand. “Those skills couldn’t have gotten that rusty if he survived the people his father sent after him, and there’s his magic.” The coward shivered a little. “His father’s magic.”

The ability to kill someone with a mere touch could be useful in a fight, Andrew had to admit, and as much as the fact that Neil was still much of an unknown quantity… the shadow walker had every reason to hate the Moriyamas. “We’ll see if he comes through,” was all Andrew said, though.

Kevin gave him an odd look for that statement and Renee an amused one, but a cold gaze from Andrew in return made them both focus on the reason they were all there in the armory, and that was to check out the weapons. They were almost through with the inventory when Bee came to let them know that Abby and Wymack had returned, so Andrew left it to Renee to finish up while he went to Abby’s lab with Kevin.

The coward prattled the entire way about possible offensive spells they could use based on the attack upon the knowe, seemingly over his ‘we’re all going to die’ mood for the moment (Andrew figured that would last until the first setback they encountered), while Andrew focused on remaining upright until he got to the lab. Between the increasing exhaustion, Kevin’s voice droning in his ear and Neil feeling both smug and anxious about something, he was more than a little distracted, which was why when he noticed the dark shapes at the corner of his eyes he put them down to everything wearing on him, especially since they vanished so quickly. The knowe was locked up tighter than a miser’s wallet so nothing was getting in or out without Wymack’s permission. _Nothing_.

And judging from the expression on the old man’s face once they reached Abby’s lab, Wymack wasn’t in a good mood so really, _nothing_ was getting in. “It’s bad,” he explained as Abby urged Andrew to sit down in a chair. “If it weren’t for a friend or two, we wouldn’t have made it back, Riko was that determined to get his hands on us.” Wymack’s jaw clenched as he glanced at Abby. “The little prick thought he could barter us or something if he did.”

Thought he could barter Abby, most likely, especially since Neil had already involved himself for her once before and Kevin had a soft spot for the healer – as was evident by the way that the Tuatha de Danann Sidhe hurried over to give Abby a quick hug.

“We’re fine,” Abby assured him as she patted him on the back. “And I got everything I needed, so you’ll be fine, too,” she said to Andrew as she let go of Kevin so she could fetch something that was bubbling away on the one table. “Just give it a minute or two to cool.” While Andrew watched, she poured the contents into a strainer then added a little filtered water before bringing the mug over to him.

“How long until Riko arrives?” Andrew asked as he accepted the elixir, which smelled like spiced honey, heavy on the cardamom.

“James Rheman was going to try to slow him down a little, see if he could talk sense into the prick, but I’m willing to bet a few hours at most.” Wymack rubbed his right hand over his tattooed left forearm as he shook his head. “Dan told me that everything’s prepared so now we just wait.”

Wonderful. Andrew blew on the mug to help cool it down, then decided that a singed tongue was worth it and drank the elixir despite its heat. He ignored the complaint from his mouth to focus on the warmth that settled in his stomach, a warmth that soon radiated through the rest of his body, which soaked into him and slowly chased away the exhaustion that had plagued him since he’d woken up the day before.

It did nothing to chase away the feel of Neil in the back of his mind, dammit.

Abby gave him an apologetic look when she took back the mug. "I... I'm glad Renee realized what was going on. I don't know how I missed what was in the potion all these years, I-"

Andrew cut her off before she did something like outright apologize. "Blame Riko, I certainly do." He noticed how Kevin flinched upon hearing those words. "The point of it all was for no one to know." For no one to realize what was going on so Andrew was the only one to blame when he finally 'snapped' and turned on everyone - just another unstable changeling in the end.

"Yes, well, it won't happen again." Abby's expression grew resolved as her fingers tightened around the mug. "We can't say too much outright because we don't want to make things difficult for you, but we can make it known that people shouldn't just blindly accept anything that the SEC hands out anymore."

Like that was much better than just standing up and proclaiming 'the SEC is a tool of the Moriyamas', but Andrew was too tired to argue with stupidity just then, even after the elixir so he didn't say anything. Instead, he gave Wymack a look that clearly said 'what now?'.

The Daoine Sidhe grunted once as he rubbed at the scruff on his chin. "Go get something to eat if you haven't had anything lately, then grab whatever you need and be ready to help out. We're gathering in the main garden."

Andrew wondered if the location had been picked because of a certain oak tree but kept the question to himself, since now that the exhaustion and lingering pain had been dealt with, his appetite had returned. He gave Wymack a lazy salute before he left Abby's workroom with Kevin once more on his heels to head off to the kitchen for some food and coffee.

They were quiet as they ate, the kitchen busy as the staff prepared easy to eat on the fly food - sandwiches and pasties and fluffy, soft croissants which Andrew grabbed a couple of to munch on as he went back to his rooms to change into a pair of thick yet worn jeans and a black t-shirt which left his armbands exposed, along with a heavy pair of ankle boots. He had to wait a little longer since Kevin decided to clean up a little before he came out of his room dressed in black jeans like Andrew but with an elaborate black tunic complete with multiple straps along the right side and knee-high leather boots. Andrew gave him a blank look for all of three seconds before turning away in disgust.

Andrew thought he saw another dark blur on the way to the gardens, but was distracted by Kevin. "Ah, don't you want something other than your staff?" he asked as he gestured to the iron wrapped rod draped over Andrew's right shoulder.

"No," was all Andrew said; between the staff, his knives, his magic and the spirits, he had enough weapons - especially once people started dying.

Kevin appeared a bit dubious about that, but let it go after Andrew held his gaze for a few seconds. "Oh-okay. Ah, you know that they won't fight... they won't fight fair, right? Riko's people."

"Good, that makes two of us."

Kevin gave up after that, his expression upset as if he wasn't very happy at the moment. Poor little coward, forced to deal with a less than ideal world where people did underhanded things - including his precious foster brother. The precious foster brother who had done his best to cripple him and who would drag him back to Evermore to keep Kevin as some cowed overgrown doll for him and his uncle to put on display for the rest of the courts. All for... actually, Andrew wasn't certain why Riko and Tetsuji insisted on keeping Kevin with them, why they couldn't just let the young Fae go.

Then again, it was obvious that the pricks weren't the type to let anything go, be it grudges or insults or anything they considered 'theirs'. That was why Andrew was going to beat the concept of 'no' into their thick heads, along with a few other things.

Once in the main garden, it didn’t take them long to find everyone, and that was because of the ruckus Seth was making as he _brayed_. Andrew took in the whiskers, the elongated ears and nose, the tail of all things, and raised an eyebrow. “That’s an improvement.”

“Oh _fuck you_ ,” Seth shouted, the words somewhat distorted because of the curse or powerful jinx or whatever that had twisted his features until they somewhat resembled those of a donkey’s.

Meanwhile Kevin leaned forward to get a better look at the changeling. “Huh, that’s a nice bit of spellwork there.” He blinked when Seth took a weak swing at him, only for Wymack to pull the asshole away in time before Andrew hit him with his staff.

“Calm down, Gordon,” the old man ordered as he shoved Seth toward Allison. “Now’s not the time for this shit.”

“But I-“

“Later,” Wymack insisted. “We’ve more important things to worry about right now, we’ll figure out how to break the jinx later.” That didn’t seem to appease Seth any, and Andrew noticed that Neil was rather quiet up in his perch; he wasn’t hiding in the leaves but he sat with his knees drawn toward his chest on one of the thicker lower branches, wearing what looked to be an old sweater of Nicky’s, judging from the size of the soft, light grey garment.

Once Seth mostly settled other than for some muttering, Wymack glanced around at all of them; everyone but Neil appeared armed and ready to fight, even Nicky and Aaron – Aaron with a halberd held in his hands, Nicky with a crossbow similar to Dan's but lacking the short sword strapped to his side as well. “Most likely they’re going to come across the southern field outside the back garden, since they won’t risk the forest with Dan here and Tamerson’s always been a bit of a kiss-ass when it comes other courts.” In other words, their one neighbor would only be too happy to open his knowe up to Riko and let a small army tromp on through.

“When that happens, I want you to be prepared to fight smart, you hear me? We can hold him off for a good long while, but if it comes down to fighting, don’t pull any dramatic or stupid shit on me. Taking him and his people on is a last resort – this knowe is a strong one and Rhemann’s out there rallying people to our defense.”

Allison paused in flipping a dagger about in the air to scoff at that last bit. “How many courts are going to back us against a Moriyama when he has the SEC in his pocket, and probably the rest of the regional Courts?”

Wymack gave her a wide, humorless grin. “I’m going to make you eat those words, you’ll see. We’ve more allies than you can imagine, ones who stand by us because they know us to be loyal and true, not because we pay them off.”

Allison scoffed again, along with Seth, but she didn’t put as much force behind it that time, and the rest of the fools seemed to buy into what Wymack was saying, even Aaron. When there was no more dissention, the man glanced up at a still quiet Neil. “What about you? Dan said that you’re one of us now.”

“I told her I’d fight alongside you this time,” Neil stressed as he unfurled a little. “I didn’t agree to stay here or be part of your knowe, just to fight Riko since he’s coming here because of me.”

Wymack huffed at that as he rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s a start, kid. Now get your ass down here, you’re making my neck hurt, looking up there.”

Neil hesitated for a moment, then in a smooth motion swung down to jump onto the ground despite the height. Abby gasped at that while Nicky swore, but Neil didn’t seem to suffer any from the action, just stood there with his bare feet on the ground and a wary expression on his face which was still covered in pixie dust. Andrew noticed that he kept out of reach of everyone, especially Wymack.

“I take it that you know how to fight,” Wymack asked as he eyed the shadow walker up and down.

“A little,” Neil answered with a touch of sarcasm.

It looked as if Wymack wanted to say something then, but shook his head instead. “You need anything?”

Before Neil could answer, Renee stepped forward with a bundle held in her left hand. “I fetched him some weapons,” she explained as she took a careful step closer to Neil, mindful about startling him.  Wymack waved her on then went over to talk to Dan, the lousy pep-talk obviously done for the time being, so Andrew went to join Renee to see what was happening – especially since the remaining spirits refused to get too close to Neil and wouldn’t eavesdrop for him.

“Here,” she told Neil as she handed over the bundle. “I thought these might suit you.”

He accepted it with evident caution, his arm outstretched to keep an adequate distance between them, and unfolded the rough cloth to reveal a set of knives with leather sheathes. When he pulled one of them from its sheath, Andrew noticed the tarnished blade and the bright edges, a sign that Renee had sharpened it and the high silver content. They wouldn’t be the strongest of weapons because of so much silver in them… but with Neil’s death magic, he would manage just fine

“Ah, they’re good,” Neil told her as he let the cloth fall to the ground while he strapped a knife each to his thighs, while Renee nodded. While Neil smoothed his hands over the hilts, Andrew stepped a bit closer.

“So you’re actually going to fight? Not going to run away for once?” he taunted.

That earned him a dirty look from Neil and his name muttered by Kevin. “Not like I can run very far thanks to you,” Neil answered in a snide tone before he shrugged. “And it’s like I told Wymack, Riko’s coming here because of me, at least partially.” He glanced at Kevin for a moment before gazing at Andrew once more. “This way I wipe out any debt owed to you and can tell him to go fuck himself with an iron sword at the same time.”

How pleasant, Andrew mused as he slowly reached out to flick at a sparkling curl falling onto Neil’s nose; he sensed mostly confusion from the idiot over his action, and just a tiny bit of concern. “This is when you prove you’re not a rabbit after all.”

Neil’s unnatural eyes narrowed, the pupils little more than thin slits since he was outside in the sun. “You can fuck yourself on that iron sword, too,” he spat as he stepped back, his fingers clenched around the hilts of the knives.

“Really, Na- ah, Neil, you should think about what you’re saying,” Kevin chided, which made Neil glare at him, too. “Now how are you with casting spells? Feel up to working any decent magic?” he asked as he came up alongside of Andrew.

"Want to try a duel to see if I am?" Neil offered, his jaw set at a stubborn angle as he crossed his arms over his narrow chest and stung pride pouring over the damn bound; Andrew noticed that the gauntlet was extended enough to cover most of his hand again, a sign that he felt more than a little defensive at the moment, which made sense.

Kevin frowned at that. "Save it for - well, just save it." Then he stumbled forward to stand by Wymack while he fidgeted with the hilt of his sword.

Andrew remained behind long enough to exchange a look with Neil, who held his gaze for a few more seconds before shrugging then turning to climb up the tree with the speed and grace of a long-limbed cat; he was tempted to make a comment about it but held his tongue since he had a feeling that there was going to be plenty of opportunities for trauma soon enough.

He took to leaning against the trunk of the tree where he could keep an eye on Aaron, Kevin and Nicky while he waited out Riko's arrival, and soon wished that he'd brought a book along to read - it was boring as hell, waiting for a battle to start. The only amusement to be found was watching Allison and Dan attempt to break the hex on Seth, while off to the side Renee stood with a serene smile on her face and murmured an occasional suggestion. Andrew had the growing suspicion that she knew something, there was something to the gleam in her dark eyes just then, along with a certain not-rabbit with a penchant for heights when the occasional burst of smugness and satisfaction pulsed over their link.

They'd just returned Seth back to 'normal' (Andrew felt that 'jackass' reflected the man's natural state rather well, what a shame) when Bee showed up with a couple of baskets of food and some flasks to drink for everyone. She arched an eyebrow at Andrew as she approached the tree with something for him, then looked up at where Neil was sitting. "I made a tincture for you, something to give you some energy and a bit of focus," she offered as she held up a silver flask. Andrew could feel Neil's wariness as he eyed both the flask and Bee, unsure if he should accept it, before he clicked his tongue and took it from the Leannan Sidhe to hold it up in the air.

"Don't be more of an idiot than usual and take it, you can't fight without something in you and a couple of weird apples won't do much."

The scowl was back as Neil dangled down low enough to snatch at the flask. "Who's the person who died the other night? If you want to talk about idiots, go look in a mirror."

Bee smiled at that while Andrew wrapped his hands around his staff and barely resisted the temptation to play 'piñata' with an idiot up in the tree. "Oh look, Bee, somehow a Moriyama knight managed to sneak into the knowe and take out one of our own, how tragic," he droned on while giving Neil an emotionless look. It took a moment for Neil to catch on, and when he did, he gave Andrew a rude, gauntlet enhanced gesture before he took a cautious sip from the flask.

"It's so nice to see you get along well with someone," she told him before she left, which made him narrow his eyes at her back and think some dark thoughts in _her_ regard for a few minutes, at least until he pushed them aside and focused on eating. At least until the young girl spirit managed to deflect the silver flask from being dropped right on top of his head a couple of minutes after he was done, followed by a blatantly false 'oops' and another pulse of smugness from Neil.

The piñata idea had its merits, but Neil must have picked up something from his side of the bond and wisely chose to stay on the upper branches after that.

It was well after noon and Nicky had just gotten into yet another fight with Seth (the third one) when there was a rustling in the leaves above Andrew from Neil standing up on his branch. "Someone's approaching," he called out as something cold flashed through Andrew, something like resolve and an odd, twisted type of anger.

Someone had good eyesight, didn't they? Andrew pushed away from the tree with his staff held in his hands as he went to stand between Kevin and Aaron while Wymack and Dan approached the edge of the garden - the edge of the knowe. Sure enough, a few seconds later they could see figures approach from the direction of Tamerson’s knowe, Sundown’s Glory - figures dressed in black and red.

Kevin let out a faint moan as they drew near, around thirty Fae knights led by Riko dressed in black armor with a sword in his right hand and a sneer on his face. Andrew didn’t hear anything, but he saw Renee shift aside enough for Neil to stand near her with a knife held in each hand.

Riko came to a stop a few feet away from the edge of the knowe, from the wards and spells which kept him out of the Foxhole Court, marked by a low running hedge thick with sharp thorns. “Wymack, you know what I’m here for, hand them over before I tear your pathetic hovel apart.”

Kevin started at the threat while Wymack scoffed. “You have no just cause to be here so fuck off, you rude little shit,” he told Riko with evident pleasure, which caused the two dozen plus knights fanned out behind the prick to shift about in outrage, save for the tall, lean figure who stood silent at Riko’s left shoulder, his expression divided between Kevin and Neil. When Andrew shifted to block Kevin from his view, the knight gave him a cold look then glanced over at Neil, where his expression grew worried before he schooled it into some sort of indifference.

“Who is he?” Andrew asked, his voice pitched low while Riko called Wymack an uneducated bastard.

“That’s Jean,” Kevin whispered back as he inched over as close to Andrew as he dared.

Huh, so _that_ was Jean. Andrew eyed him a moment longer before he returned his attention to Wymack’s and Riko’s pissing match.

“-told you to go away. Kevin’s here of his own free will and so is Neil, neither of them is sworn to you,” Wymack argued.

“ _Neil_.” Riko sneered again while he looked over at the shadow walker. “You mean Nathaniel, who is a Moriyama vassal per his own father’s oath. You have no right, sheltering someone else’s property.”

Neil spat out something in old Fae which made Kevin grimace, yet Riko blinked in confusion so Andrew took that to mean the prick didn’t know the language, either. “Now take that piece of metal you’re holding in your hands and shove it up your ass, you worthless piece of trash,” Neil finished in English, which made Matt laugh and Wymack shake his head. “Then fuck off.” Behind Riko, Jean could be seen wincing as if in pain.

Riko bared his teeth at Neil in a parody of a smile. “I see we still have a few… lessons to teach you about manners, Nathaniel. Particularly about how you can best put that tongue of yours to use. You left before my men could finish them.” Behind him, Jean flinched at those words while searing hot rage burned through the bond Andrew shared with Neil.

“Come a little closer,” Neil taunted Riko. “Tell me that while you’re in reach.” He held out his right hand – the one covered in silver, which made Riko’s mocking grin fade when he saw the enchanted gauntlet.

“Come _now_ , Nathaniel, before we drag you back to Evermore – you and Kevin.” He looked over at the coward, who had become silent during the exchange. “It’s time that both of you returned where you belong.”

Once again, Kevin shook his head. “No,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Not-“ he didn’t finish that thought, he just shook his head again as he clutched at his sword with his right hand.

Riko, prick that he was, seemed to seize upon that. “You know it’s your home, Kevin,” he said, his voice coated with a thick, sweet yet poisonous honey. “That it’s the only place you truly belong, the place that took you in and gave you a home. Where-“

There weren’t any dead in the Fae world for Andrew to call up to use against the prick, not when Fae and changelings’ bodies ‘disappeared’ after their deaths, but he used his earth magic to rock the ground beneath Riko to put an end the bullshit the Tengu was spewing just then. “He’s where he’s meant to be,” Andrew called out as he rested the one end of his staff against the ground.

“Damn right he is,” Wymack agreed. “I’ll say it again, you’ve no reason to be here, so go away. If you’ve a grievance bring it before the High Court and we’ll meet you there, but get the fuck away from my knowe.”

“The sooner, the better,” Dan called out as the hedges rattled their thorny branches and the trees around Riko’s group leaned toward them in an ominous manner.

Some of the knights in Evermore colors appeared rattled by the show of power, but they held the line while Riko once more took to glaring at Neil. “It’ll only be worse for you if you make me come for you Nathaniel,” he warned, all false sweetness gone from his voice. “You be-“

“I belong to no one,” Neil shouted, his voice ragged and his emotions turbulent over the bond, strong enough to make Andrew wince to feel them, to feel _so much_. “I don’t give a damn what my father did, he doesn’t even know my true name! Only my mother did and she never agreed to such a thing,” he argued, “so you’ll never get me to swear an oath to a pathetic, weak bastard like you!”

Matt beamed in pride as Neil yelled at Riko, Dan grinned as well and Abby’s expression grew worried, probably because Kevin’s face had drained of blood at the sight of rage on Riko’s face over being both insulted and denied. So maybe Neil wasn’t a rabbit after all (a runner, yes, a meek rabbit, no, and definitely a suicidal idiot who needed a muzzle for that mouth of his).

“Break down the wards,” Riko hissed out as he struggled to control his form, as small black feathers appeared and disappeared on his face and his eyes turned pure black. “Break down the wards and kill everyone but Kevin and Nathaniel,” he ordered. “ _Everyone_.”

His people seemed taken back by the order, especially the knight by his side, Jean, but one harsh look from him sent them scurrying to obey while Wymack muttered a foul curse and the Foxes prepared for the attack; Riko didn’t have any just cause to attack the Foxhole Court as it was, but to leave it decimated? He was about to start a war among the Fae and all over two people.

One of them a powerful spellcaster, and another who could enter any knowe on a whim and kill with a mere touch. Perhaps Riko figured with Kevin and Neil under his control, he had more than enough power to win that war.

The prick more than likely was right.

Allison let out a shrill battle cry as she went up to the edge of the wards, her sword held high as she prepared for them to fall so she could rush out to take on the knights in front of her, while Andrew and Dan used their earth magic to fight long range past the wards. They had the advantage in that it was familiar ground to them and not the case for the Evermore knights, who couldn’t do the same with the gardens in the Foxhole Court since they were warded. Still, it would only be a matter of time before Riko’s people battered down the knowe’s defenses since there were so many of them, since Riko had brought what appeared to be his best and most powerful knights, but the Foxes wouldn’t go down without one hell of a fight.

Then one of the Evermore knights let out a sharp cry that was drowned out by panicked yells around him. Andrew thought it was a trick at first, until he noticed how the offensive spells directed at the wards faltered and then stopped, how the knights spread out in disarray even as Riko shouted at them in anger and confusion. He noticed that as a pulse of surprise and then excitement and what felt to be happiness came over the strengthened bond between him and Neil.

“What the fuck is going on, is it a trick?” Seth asked as he smacked the handle of his mace into his left hand.

“I don’t think so, this isn’t something that Tetsuji or Riko would let his-“ Kevin paled once more when a familiar sound could be heard, the low, rough, cough-like bark that they’d heard on the Dark Road. It was right around then that Andrew caught sight of a dark blur take down one of the knights, a tall Daoine Sidhe. “Oh no, no that’s not possible,” Kevin breathed out while he shook his head.

Even Dan appeared shaken just then. “But it’s… it’s not the Dark Road. How?”

“What the hell is going on?” Wymack demanded to know as several of Riko’s knights began to teleport away, those who had the ability. “Andrew, is this your doing?”

“Not me, I don’t have anything to do with the Dark Road or shadow wolves,” he accused as he turned toward Neil, who stood there with a guarded expression on his face despite his jubilant emotions while he watched Riko’s people either flee or be killed by the now visible shadow wolves; the prick was down to about a dozen knights, thanks to the six creatures who had somehow managed to make their way into the Fae realm.

“Shadow- Oberon’s balls, _how_?” Wymack lowered his sword as he turned toward Andrew, his expression one of intense disbelief, only for his eyes to narrow when he caught sight of Neil. “That’s not possible, they can’t leave the Dark Road.”

“You tell _them_ that.” Andrew nodded to outside of the ward. “You’ll get a chance soon, since they’re almost done with our guests.” At that point, the only people left alive outside the wards were Riko and Jean, who moved to stand in front of the prick as the shadow wolves closed in.

Kevin made a pained sound and Andrew had to admit to some displeasure on his part, since _he_ wanted to be the one to kill Riko, to make the prick’s death painful as hell for what he’d done. However, since Andrew wasn’t about to mess with a pack of supernatural killing machines, he’d just resigned himself to disappointment when Neil called out in old Fae while fear and regret washed over Andrew, the words acting like a leash with the shadow wolves in that it made them stop and look back as one at the shadow walker. They turned around in a fluid motion, no longer appearing to be interested in Riko and Jean, who slumped onto his knees and muttered in French, and made a beeline straight to the Foxhole Court.

“Titania’s tits, are we going to die?” Seth whined as he hefted his mace, but before he could step forward, Renee seemed to do something to knock him back. The wolves breached the wards as if they didn’t exist and flowed past a stunned Allison, evaded Matt’s attempt to hit them with his broadsword and the bolts Dan fired at them with ease as they rushed toward Neil.

Andrew could use his staff against them, could use earth magic in an attempt to slow them down… but all he did was step aside as they swarmed the idiot, as Abby cried out and Wymack cursed at the sight of Neil going down beneath the wave of shiny black fur – because he could sense Neil’s intense joy and relief. Could feel emotions so potent that he was a bit light-headed as a result, and doubted that the idiot had _that_ strong of a death wish.

“Oberon’s blood.” Kevin appeared barely able to stand as he took in the shadow wolves yipping while they attempted to lick a smiling Neil, as they rubbed against him and one even sat in his lap. Neil was murmuring in a mix of old Fae and French to them, was petting them and rubbing their ears as if they were puppies and not death poured into a sleek canine form. “How… that’s not possible….”

It was evident that they hadn’t been asking Neil the right questions about his time on the Dark Road and in regards to the shadow wolves, dammit. Andrew felt a great deal of annoyance over that fact and swore to resolve it very soon, Wymack’s insistence on there being no more exchange for food be damned.

It seemed that Wymack had realized the same thing as he looked at Neil with narrowed eyes. “What the _hell_ is going on-“

“Are you responsible for this, Nathaniel?”

It seemed they’d forgotten about a certain prick, how unfortunate.

Riko came as close to the wards as he could, his face twisted with fury and hatred as he stared at Neil. “Did you call those foul beasts here?”

Neil sighed as he pushed the shadow wolves as much aside as he could and stood, with the shadow wolves pressed against him to prop him up. “No, I didn’t, they don’t answer to me.”

Riko stared at him for several seconds, his all black eyes darting back and forth between Neil’s face and the gauntlet on his right arm before he scoffed. “You _will_ swear to me.”

Neil bared his sharp white teeth to the prick. “I called them off from you once, don’t mistake that as a weakness,” he warned as he glanced at Jean for a moment. “Go away now before I correct that mistake.”

For some reason Andrew felt a twist of bitterness inside of his chest when he realized that Neil had ‘saved’ Riko because of Jean, but before he could process that fact, Riko snarled at Neil as his Tengu nature took over, as feathers burst over his face and upper body, as his arms twisted into half wings and a beak burst out from his face right before he activated some sort of teleportation spell which took him and Jean back to Evermore (supposedly – Andrew didn’t care if they went to some nether hell, as long as they went far away).

“Oberon’s blood,” Kevin moaned as he sheathed his sword then wrapped his arms around his waist. “He’s not going to give up now, not after _that_.”

Not after being shamed, Andrew surmised. Not after finding out that the Fae he assumed he ‘owned’ could command shadow wolves and so make him that much more powerful. Yet all Andrew did was smack the coward on the back of his head. “So what?”

“So what?” Kevin appeared on the edge of a panic attack. “Riko was just showed up in front of an audience, he lost some of his best fighters and he failed an important mission on top of it all!” Kevin paused to pant for several seconds as he jerked his left hand through his hair. “And now he knows that Neil can control shadow wolves!”

“No I can’t,” Neil shot back even as he was surrounded by the deadly creatures, who were curled up around him like a bunch of cats seeking warmth around a fire.

“Uhm, _those_ are shadow wolves?” Nicky asked as he slung his crossbow around his back. “Aren’t they supposed to be eating everything alive right now?”

Beside him, Aaron rubbed his brow as if he had a headache. “Are you complaining that they aren’t? Really?”

“I’m just-“

“Yes, they are,” Andrew settled before it turned into a huge fight. “Say anything else and we’ll have them eat you,” he warned his cousin.

Nicky gulped as he took a few steps back from Neil, not that he’d been close to begin with, but the wolves turned as one to watch him the entire time in an eerie manner.

Before anyone else could say anything, Wymack shoved his way between Nicky and Kevin – with his sword sheathed, which probably helped to keep the wolves settled. “All right, now that the potential war’s been settled, we’re going to meet in the common room to talk about a few things, yeah?” He gave Neil a pointed look, considering that the shadow walker was surrounded by shadow wolves at the moment. “And no, it’s not an optional discussion.”

Neil had the gall to give the old man an innocent look. “Uhm-“

“No, you get your ass in there,” Wymack barked. “You and your pets.”

Neil scowled at that comment. “They’re not pets.” Then he seemed to realize how telling that statement was and schooled his expression into something much more blank, even as Wymack smirked.

“Whatever, kiddo, it’s clear that you’re a matched set at this point, so get your ass in gear and keep them from eating anyone in the damn knowe.” Wymack’s smile faded as he gave the shadow wolves a cool look. “I’d think they’d be full at this point.”

Neil didn’t respond to that at first as he hugged the wolf leaning against him like an overly affectionate mutt, of all things. Then he shuddered a little as he pushed the one shadow wolf aside as if it wasn’t a big deal, treating an instrument of death so casually like that. “Let’s get this over with, then,” he told Wymack, his expression one of defiance even though his emotions were much more anxious.

Wymack grunted as he motioned for Neil and his damn pets to precede him into the knowe. “After you.”

Andrew waited for several seconds before Neil proceeded to walk surrounded by shadow wolves toward the main building of the knowe, his head held high as the rest of the Foxes gaped at him. Andrew had to bite back on muttering ‘idiot’ as Neil went past him, and made sure to fall in step behind him even if it put him in close proximity to several shadow wolves – it amused him to see Kevin scramble to keep up a moment later.

They made an odd sort of entourage through the garden under the disbelieving stares of the Foxes – well, save for Renee’s oddly knowing look. Andrew gave her a flat stare in return, then focused on Neil’s jumbled emotions and the mixed chance of getting some sort of truth out of the idiot in the near future once they were inside.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> Hmm, now I feel like we're getting somewhere. 
> 
> I'm hoping to get back on track with the posting schedule, things are still busy but not as insane as they were last month. But we'll see if I have another chapter out in a week.
> 
> As always, thanks so much for the comments and kudos!  
> *******


	6. Bloodstream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, back on track for this chapter (at least!), though work is still insane so we'll see if I can manage another Sunday post for the next chapter (fingers crossed). Though this chapter is a tiny bit shorter than others, but it just hit a really good place to end it.
> 
> There's reference to Andrew's and Neil's past abuse in this chapter, nothing explicit at all but be aware it plays into a plot point at the end. Feel free to ping me on tumblr if you have any questions (nekojitachan).  
> *******

*******

Neil dug his fingers in the thick, soft fur at Ombré’s nape as he made his way to the common room with the rest of the shadow wolves around him, both amazed that some of the pack had appeared in the knowe and grateful at their arrival. He had been ready to take on Riko's knights until he could no longer stand, to unleash his father's magic and every last curse he knew rather than go back to Evermore... but the wolves had made all of that unnecessary.

At least for now. Kevin had been right when he said that Riko wouldn't forget nor forgive what had happened earlier, that he would be even more determined to make Neil swear to him. Well, Neil was even more determined to never have anything to do with the Moriyamas again.

Too bad things weren't as easy as that, in wishing the bad away.

He reached the common area and went over to the one fireplace to sink to the floor with the pack quick to curl up around him, Nuit tucked against his right side and Ombré in his lap, Plaisantin on his left, Martinet and Chérie behind him with Chérie's muzzle resting on his right shoulder and Pilier sprawled out in front. Andrew was right behind him through the doorway and arched a thick eyebrow at the scene, something akin to amusement trickling over the detested link between them, and surprised Neil by leaning against the wall only a couple of feet away with the oak wood and iron tipped staff held loosely in his large hands. What surprised Neil even more was how the pack on the whole gave Andrew a quick look and a longer sniff, then settled back against Neil in an unperturbed manner.

The rest of the Foxhole Court knights were more apprehensive about entering the common room, at least until Wymack strode inside to stop a few feet away from Neil and the pack. The stocky Daoine Sidhe looked Neil up and down for a few seconds with his arms crossed over his broad chest, his lips pressed into a flat line that thinned even more when he took in the shadow wolves, then he shook his head. "Tell me you didn't know that they could leave the Dark Road." That didn't sound like much of a question.

Neil frowned at that and buried his fingers once more in Ombré’s thick fur. "I know as much as you in that regard - I've never heard of them leaving the Dark Road and never thought they could." While he spoke, Kevin edged around the rest of the knights and came to stand beside Andrew, yet made sure to keep the necromancer between the wolves and himself.

Wymack grunted at that statement. "And you didn't call them here?"

"No," Neil said. "I told you, I don't control them." Nuit huffed at that, a low, mocking cough.

That made Wymack's lips twist into a wry grin and a few of the knights scoff, Allison and Seth especially. "You might not control them, but you seem to get along with them rather well."

Neil gave him a wry grin of his own. "Maybe they're just misunderstood and are really very friendly." He shot Seth in particular a too-sweet smile. "Come over here and give them a pet, why don't you?"

The changeling scowled at him while Nicky laughed and some more of that faint amusement flowed over the link. "Fuck you, you freak," Seth snapped, only to blanch when Pilier rose up onto his front legs to stare at him and bare very impressive fangs. "Fuck!" He scrambled to dodge behind Allison and Renee. "Call 'em off!"

"I _told_ you, I don't control them," Neil reminded the coward as he ignored the dirty look that Wymack was sending his way.

"Afraid of a mutt," Andrew droned on, his voice as flat as his emotions as he pushed away from the wall, where he left his staff to step forward, toward Neil and the wolves. He gazed directly at Neil as he approached Pilier, appearing unconcerned about the huge shadow wolf baring its teeth at him, with no sense of fear or worry flowing over the damn link, and set his right hand to rest lightly on top of Pilier's head while never once looking away from Neil. "You're pathetic as always, Gordon."

Once again Neil was left stunned by Andrew's actions - Andrew's and the shadow wolves'. Why hadn't the pack reacted to the necromancer? Because despite some of Andrew's actions, he'd never physically hurt Neil? Confused and mocked him, made it clear that he felt Neil should go as soon as possible (which was a cruel joke now, because of the damn bond), but had never physically harmed Neil. Yet how did the pack know that?

How did Andrew know that the shadow wolves wouldn't harm him?

Andrew arched his eyebrow again as he held Neil's gaze, while Nicky and Kevin took to swearing and Aaron swiped at his sweat-slicked face, Seth looked ready to throw something and Renee smiled on in what appeared to be bliss. As for Wymack, he gave the two of them and the wolves a sour look. "Cute, Minyard, real cute. If you're done playing with the puppies, we have things to discuss."

Meanwhile, Seth shoved his way past Allison and Dan as he held out his hand. "This is just some sort of tr- shit!" He yelped as he jumped back when Pilier shifted away from Andrew to snarl and snap his teeth at the bastard changeling.

“I’m picking up that they might not like you,” Nicky stage whispered just then as he grinned at Seth. “Just maybe.”

Aaron snorted as he leaned back to rest against the arm of one of the room’s couches, a look of utter disdain on his face. “Obviously they can sense ‘asshole’ and don’t care for them.”

Seth flushed at the jabs and shot the two young men a rude gesture. “Go fuck off as well – better yet, why don’t you play with the mongrels, eh?” He smirked at them until Martinet and Chérie rose up from behind Neil to begin stalking through the room, their tails held high and ears erect, so Neil didn’t think they were intent on causing too much mayhem.

Still, their presence put all the Fae except him and Andrew on edge, and even Andrew went still and frowned a little, his emotions no longer so amused and now a mix of curiousity and concern. Meanwhile, Wymack scowled as Seth took to once more hiding behind Allison and Renee as if the two women would protect him. “Neil? What the hell is going on here?”

Neil shrugged as Ombré took to leaning against him. “It should be fine.”

“ _Should_?” Wymack’s voice took on a sharp edge and even Abby appeared panicked as the wolves nosed their way around the room. “What did I say about these things not eating anyone?”

“And I keep telling you that I don’t control them,” Neil snapped as he rubbed Ombré’s ears. “I’d make them stop drooling on me, then.” That earned him a low whine from the she-wolf. “You do, too, especially when you sleep.” That earned him a full face lick for telling him the truth and several disbelieving looks for some reason.

Matt gave a nervous laugh as Neil scrubbed his face dry with his left sleeve. “I’d say they’re just like dogs except I’ve seen them eat people – _please don’t eat me_ ,” he told Chérie in a rush when she nudged at his right knee. “I’m sure I taste terrible, too much beer and mortal junk food.”

Meanwhile, Renee smiled at Martinet. “You’re a lovely fellow, do you know that?” When he bared his teeth at her while his tail wagged a little, her smile widened. “Yes, you certainly are,” she crooned while Neil stared at her in confusion and Allison shook her head. “Did you enjoy eating those knights? Did they taste yummy?”

“Titania’s tits, the insanity is spreading,” Wymack muttered as he jerked his right hand through his disheveled hair.

“I’m just trying to answer an outstanding question,” Renee told him with evident disapproval as she fished something out of the left pocket of her skirt which she tossed to Martinet, who caught it with a pleased bark – Neil thought it might be a small biscuit of some kind.

Meanwhile, Allison seemed to get over her nervousness of the wolves as she draped her left arm along Renee’s shoulders and narrowed her eyes at Martinet. “Well, they smell a lot better than hellhounds, so that’s in their favor. And they don’t seem to like those Evermore bastards, which is another plus. We’ve had worse pets around here.”

“Yeah, like those two barghests a certain _someone_ brought home the one time,” Dan said while looking at Matt, who had finally stopped edging away from Chérie.

“But they’d just lost their mother and- aw _come on_ , they didn’t do that much damage, did they?”

“Just destroyed one of the gardens, but who’s counting?” Abby peeked from around Wymack’s broad back to smile at the wolves. “I agree with Dan and Allison.”

“Of course you do.” Wymack didn’t look too pleased just then, which made Neil happy that he had the rest of the shadow wolves around him, especially Nuit and Ombré. As he thought that, Andrew shifted about and took to leaning against the fireplace’s mantel, which put him uncomfortably close; for some reason Nuit twisted his sleek head back to sniff at the necromancer once more but allowed him to remain standing next to Neil, close enough to touch. “We’re not here to talk about this old shit, we need to figure out what to do moving on.” Wymack gave the whole room an even look as he rested his right hand on top of the hilt of the sword hanging in the belt around his thick waist. “Riko may have run away with his tail tucked between his legs, but he’ll be back sooner or later. We need to be prepared for that.”

Dan stepped forward from where she’d been standing next to Matt, the crossbow slung across her back and a stern expression on her face. “What do we need to do?” She glanced aside from Wymack to peer at the shadow wolves. “We got lucky today because of Neil and his pets-“

“They’re not pets,” Neil hissed even as he rubbed at Ombré’s ears.

“Do you know _nothing_ about shadow wolves,” Kevin added, his expression one of abject horror. “I don’t know why they’ve been so… so _docile_ thus far, but keep it up and I won’t be surprised when they start eating your livers.”

“You sound so upset about that,” Seth muttered, a disgruntled expression on his face which quickly turned into panic when Martinet twisted his head about to look at the changeling. “Fuck!”

“Stop reacting to them,” Allison chided her… well, what was it between the two of them? Not that Neil was an expert by any means when it came to relationships, but he felt that the Valkyrie could do better than an asshole who didn’t know enough than to stop taunting pixies, for starters.

“It wouldn’t be such a waste,” Kevin told Seth, and when the changeling glared at the insult, Andrew leaned forward enough to make Seth scoff then back off.

Neil wasn’t sure what he thought about Andrew – well, that wasn’t entirely true. He knew that Andrew was powerful, was a necromancer of uncommon strength. Other than that… Andrew unsettled him, left him on edge. It wasn’t because of – Andrew wasn’t like – there’d been a bit of untruth in what he’d said before, about Andrew being like – Andrew confused him, plain and simple. He could be sharp and cruel and biting and- and then he could shield Neil from Seth and go to the Dark Road and rein in Kevin and-

It didn’t make any sense to Neil. He was used to black and white. Was used to pain and not pain. Was used to his father and his mother. One hurt to protect him, one hurt to… well, one hurt him because he could. Because he was his father. Because he was Nathan Wesninski, the Folús Sidhe. 

Neil was used to being hurt.

He wasn’t used to being taunted without the true intent to cut him deep, the intent to make him break. Andrew had a harsh edge to him, but once he realized that his words caused bleeding, he stopped or pulled them back. He pushed for truths, that much was evident - he was like a bloodhound on a trail in that manner, but Neil soon realized that Andrew was determined to protect the knowe, to protect his family.

Neil wasn’t used to that – in his limited experience, it was either his mother fighting to protect him or… well, nothing. The only person he’d known determined to protect something had been his mother, really.

She’d never let him protect her, not really. It could be argued those times he’d fought back had been to protect himself, to protect _them_. He’d just been following her instructions. Had followed along with what she’d beaten into him. Had listened to when she’d told him to obey, to follow, to shut up and endure the pain and-

No wonder he’d gone a little mad on the Dark Road once he’d been alone.

Realizing that the others were still talking, were squabbling amongst themselves while Andrew stood there giving Neil an even look, Neil took a deep breath and dug his fingers a little more into the soft, thick fur of Ombré’s ruff. She rumbled in appreciation while Nuit leaned more against Neil and whined for attention as well. Neil wasn’t certain, but he thought he heard a faint scoff from the necromancer over the wolves’ antics.

“They really are just like normal dogs,” Nicky said in an amused voice, at least until Plaisantin used the shadows to cross over to his side of the room and then bared his teeth to the changeling. “Okay, maybe not!” Nicky shouted as he huddled next to a glowering Aaron. “That is creepy!”

“Neil,” Wymack called out with intent, “make them behave.”

“I don’t control them,” Neil stressed yet again. “They came here of their own volition, they do what they want.” He was still amazed – amazed and happy that the pack had come for him, had come and chased Riko away. So whatever the wolves wanted just then was mostly fine with him.

That wasn’t what Wymack wanted to hear, obviously, and Kevin stirred as Plaisantin returned to Neil and the rest of the pack. “Maybe, maybe not,” Kevin said as he gave Neil a pointed look – actually, he was staring at the gauntlet around Neil’s right wrist, which had returned to its band form now that Riko was gone and the pack in the knowe. “But you’re of Maeb’s bloodline, one of her direct descendants and you’re wearing her gauntlet. You’ve survived longer on the Dark Road than anyone I’ve ever heard about, you can breach knowes at will….” His dark brows drew together in consternation as if he didn’t even know what he was trying to say. “I think… I think there’s a reason they’re drawn to you, and I don’t believe it’s coincidence, them coming here. There’s not much information on the creatures, but the little there is says that they’re tied to Maeb somehow.”

“But he’s not fuckin’ Maeb,” Seth pointed out with a great deal of derision, “not by a long shot, even if he’s a prissy pureblood and his monster of a father’s a Firstborn.”

Neil fought not to flinch at mention of Nathan Wesninski, while Matt and Wymack glared at the changeling and a low pulse of anger came over the bond. “Shut the fuck up, Seth,” Matt warned. “You’re no one to talk when it comes to bloodlines.”

“It figures you purebloods stick up for each other,” Seth sneered. “Though I’m sure he looks down on a half-Ifrit like you.”

“No one looks down on _anyone_ here,” Wymack snapped as he waved back a furious Matt. “I’ve warned you about that shit, Gordon, so stop it.” He held the changeling’s gaze long enough to make Seth look away while muttering, then once more turned back to Neil. “What Kevin said makes sense in a messed up way – Maeb’s gone but you’re the closest thing to a legitimate heir out there right now, someone they might respect and obey. So if they’re going to be hanging around here, make them behave, all right?”

Neil felt his throat tighten at that ‘hanging around’ part. “But I….”

“Look, kid, we know about the geas,” Wymack continued in an almost gentle, gruff tone as he glanced back and forth between Andrew and Neil, as displeasure coursed over the damn bond. “Andrew’s sworn to me and the Foxhole Court, and his family’s here. As much as you seem to love the Dark Road and I know you’re tied to it, you can’t just drag him there – and I’m not sure he could survive it like you do.”

“Wait, what the hell is he talking about?” Aaron demanded to know. “Andrew, what the hell is going on?”

Andrew ignored his brother as Renee took to whispering something to the other knights, probably about the geas and what had happened when she had ‘helped’ Andrew the other night, and Wymack continued talking to Neil. “I also think it’s clear that Riko’s determined to get you back – you and Kevin, but after what happened today, you’ve made yourself all the more valuable.” He nodded toward the wolves. “Some people will be put off by them, but others… whoever can make you theirs will have that much more power at their command, power to have the rest of the Fae fear them and bend to their will.”

“What are you saying?” Neil asked as he fought down the sense of panic, the feel of iron cuffs against his wrists and the blades burning against his flesh; Ombré and Nuit pressed against him to offer comfort while Andrew’s rage filled his mind. “What is it you want?”

“Yes, what is it you’re angling for here?” Andrew asked, his voice deceptively mild in contrast to his emotions. “Want some of that power for yourself?”

“Andrew!” Abby gasped, while Wymack gave the two of them a grim smile.

“No, it’s a fair question,” the Daoine Sidhe admitted, and shook his head at Dan who appeared offended for his sake. “A lot of people are going to ask it, but I swear to you on the stars above and roots below that I’ll never use Neil against his will, never ask him to do anything more than to defend this knowe and its people. Kid… _Neil_ ,” he stressed, “the Fae know about you now and they’re not going to let you be until you pick a side. I agree with you that the Moriyamas don’t have a claim on you, I do. There’s your uncle, you could always go to him, and if you want that, if Andrew agrees, then I’ll release him. You’re the man’s heir, after all.”

Neil was stunned to hear that, to find out that Stuart didn’t have an heir of his own, along with the fact that Wymack would release Andrew from his oath. It had stunned Andrew, too, from the feel of it… and Andrew wasn’t pleased with the prospect. Neil caught the necromancer looking at a sullen Aaron and upset Nicky and knew what Andrew’s answer would be if he asked to go to his uncle’s knowe.

It wasn’t as if he was set on that path in the first place; he barely knew the man, after all, and somehow…. It was bad enough to be bound to Andrew, to be stuck with him for however long. To be kept from the Dark Road because of the necromancer (and he had the feeling that Wymack was correct, that Andrew wouldn’t adjust to a life there like Neil had) – but did that justify Neil turning around and tearing Andrew away from the life he had? How would they move forward if all they ever did was rip each other apart?

“What are you proposing?”

Andrew was startled by the question while Wymack appeared pleased. “You can’t keep moving on alone, so accept some help, kid. Swear to be loyal to me and my people, to the Foxhole Court and to defend it, and we’ll have your back. Riko can’t touch you because you’ll be sworn to me, but I promise you that if your uncle needs you, I won’t let your vow to me interfere and will even let you go.”

Neil considered that while he felt the mix of disbelief and faint hope from Andrew. “All right, I swear to you that I’ll defend your people and your knowe, that I’ll be loyal to you and a member of your court.” Around him the pack shifted about to stare at Wymack. “But that doesn’t mean the pack is yours to command,” he insisted. Nuit huffed at that.

Wymack nodded in approval. “Smart addition there, I’d hate to be called to the High Court and have them try to pull some shit through me with these guys here.”

That wasn’t something Neil wanted to think about just then, about the SEC or any of the regional courts let alone the High Court, which had power over all of the knowes in North America. It was bad enough to deal with the Moriyamas and his father, which hopefully swearing to Wymack would circumvent; somehow, the spell he’d cast back on that beach so long ago that awful night his mother had died had taken a lot stronger than he’d expected and seemed to aid in distancing him from being ‘Nathaniel Wesninski’, in making the Moriyamas’ claim on him that much weaker.

“So Neil’s a Fox now?” Matt said. “He’s one of us?”

“Can you be any more stupid?” Aaron muttered, and glared when Matt gave him a too-sweet grin and a rude gesture, which provoked a dark emotion from Andrew.

“Yes, he’s a Fox,” Wymack answered. “So no more extorting shit out of him,” he insisted as he gave a pointed look to Andrew and Kevin, which made Neil happy but made that dark emotion twist into something distinctly displeased and Kevin start to swear in French.

“But he knows-“ Kevin eventually attempted to argue in English.

“No,” Wymack insisted. “Don’t even try.” He gave Kevin a narrow look until the Tuatha de Danann cursed again and glanced away.

As if that was a sign, Abby approached Neil with a bright smile and a cautious manner. “Come on, you must be tired and want something to eat.” She gave the shadow wolves a nervous glance. “Uhm, do they….”

“They’ll fend for themselves,” Neil assured her. “On the Dark Road,” he said in a rush when Wymack glowered at him. Maybe they could bring something back for him, since while he loved fruit, he was getting a little tired of it and could use something else if he was going to be stuck in the Fae realm for a while longer.

“Okay.” Abby’s smile returned as he stood up. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat and then we can find a proper room for you.”

Dan came forward as much as she dared with the wolves around Neil. “We’ll need to get you some supplies, too.” A frown came over her face as she glanced at Wymack. “Too bad we’re on lockdown, but we’ll manage somehow.”

Kevin was quick to join in. “Surely you can-“

“Leave him alone,” Matt warned as he hovered next to Kevin. “You heard Wymack.”

Neil ignored the bickering between the two young men as he followed Abby out of the common room, his attention half on what she was telling him about the available rooms and half on the odd emotions flowing over the link from Andrew, the annoyance and contemplation and something that was a little bitter. Neil glanced over his shoulder to catch sight of the necromancer, but Andrew was nowhere to be seen so he decided that it would be best to focus on Abby at the moment, to deal with what the new oath to Wymack meant to his immediate future.

He would have to deal with Andrew soon enough, to figure out how the bond impacted him, to see if it could be broken… but it was evident that neither of them were up to those things that day.

Andrew obviously was content to ignore him for as long as possible.

To Neil’s surprise, that… that stung a little, considering how he’d made a choice which had taken the necromancer in mind, but it was too late to change things so he would move forward as best he could, would accept the fact that he was a ‘Fox’ now and make the best of it. He was used to that after so long, after all.

If Andrew wanted to ignore him, he would ignore Andrew in return.

Neil walked forward with his hands on Nuit and Ombré, with the pack at his heels, and figured he could survive whatever these Foxes and anyone else threw at him as long as he had the shadow wolves around him. There was a reason the Fae world feared the Dark Road, after all, and if need be, he and the pack would show them just why that was so.

*******

The day after Riko's failed attack on the knowe, Andrew went 'outside' to check that things were all right around the campus, that Riko hadn't left any of his knights behind to watch over them or try anything should Kevin or Neil (highly unlikely considering the other night) step out into the mortal world. Everything appeared quiet (save for a growing ache in Andrew’s chest which he refused to think about just then), and it wasn't long after Andrew reached the parking lot that a few spirits approached him, the souls of young adults who weren't willing to move on just yet. He felt some reserve in accepting them at first, but in the end the more spirits he had meant that he was better able to protect his own, to stand up to the Moriyamas in a fight, so he gave them a bit of his energy and returned to the knowe that much stronger.

The new ones didn't care for Neil and the shadow wolves just as much as the 'old' spirits, which meant that they gave Neil and his 'pets' a wide berth. At least he was down to just two now, the rest having returned to the Dark Road (supposedly), though two was more than enough considering that they followed him around like dual shadows, forever at his heels. Perhaps it was their presence which seemed to settle him, to help reconcile him to the fact that he was stuck with the Foxes and the knowe (at least for the time being) since his emotions smoothed out and became less panicked as long as everyone gave him enough space (not a problem, considering that he had two walking death machines around him at all times). If anything, Andrew had to grow used to the constant confusion over the bond as Neil dealt with Matt's overtures of friendship, at Dan's attempts to draw him out and learn more about him, of Abby fussing over him and Allison's chiding him to dress better 'since you're a Fox now'. It was clear that Neil wasn't used to being around other people, wasn't used to attention focused his way, and could only take so much of the Foxes before he retreated to the garden with the mutts for some much needed solitude despite the fact that Wymack gave him his own set of rooms.

A garden that underwent a drastic change over the next week, as somehow (what an odd coincidence, it happening not long after a certain shadow walker's arrival), the pixies had gotten their hands on a bunch of jinxes and staked claim to the areas they'd always preferred, the thicker patches of plants and herbs, near the willow and rowan trees and wilder brambles of roses and holly. Seth had taken it as a personal offense and bore the brunt of the small curses while Wymack had given Neil a suspicious look, but the idiot had proven himself adept at dodging questions, at answering them with half-truths and trailing questions of his own which led one off-topic and in circles until Wymack gave up and told everyone to leave the damn flying pests alone. After all, they didn't bother Abby and Bee, who always paid them due respect when gathering the ingredients they needed for their spells, or the household staff who knew better when dealing with them, and of course Renee.

They also didn't bother Neil, what a surprise.

Neil, who had also surprised Andrew in staying at the Foxhole Court, in accepting Wymack’s offer especially when he could have gone to Shadow’s Edge, when he-

Andrew found himself torn between mild amusement in discovering the latest jinx Seth all but inflicted upon himself (and sometimes Reynolds when she went to help him, as well as Aaron when his brother was stupid about how much pennyroyal or rosemary he needed) and frustration on how Wymack kept insisting that since Neil was now a Fox so no one could 'extort' any information out of him in exchange for food. Not only did it mean that Andrew went by without some much sought after answers (such as, why the fuck had Neil called the wolves off of Jean like that? What was the Leannan Sidhe to him? What the fuck did he do on the Dark Road to make the shadow wolves act like docile pets?), but Kevin basically thrummed from the thwarted need to know more about the shadow wolves and anything Dark Road related.

There was frustration as well in the time spent leaning against the wall in Bee's work room while she and Renee poured through books and mixed various potions together and cast failed spell after spell in numerous attempts to break the geas binding him to Neil, all for nothing. Each day Andrew woke up with the knowledge that he was tied to someone, had some sort of magical chains linking him to an idiot out running around in the gardens wearing his brother's and cousin's hand-me-downs while playing some stupid game of tag with demon mutts, his emotions so strong and bright and overwhelming. Andrew had to watch most of the knowe fall over their feet in their attempts to win over Neil as if he was a stray animal, an abused fox kit they were attempting to domesticate - well, everyone but Seth, who sneered at Neil every chance he got when he wasn't scurrying away from the shadow wolves or yelling about the latest hex contorting about his body or features.

Needless to say, after a week had passed with no new attack from the Moriyamas and the knowe still under lockdown, with Andrew having spent too long with his insides twisted up after watching Neil give a tentative smile to Renee for her offering to play 'catch' with the mutts with him so they'd have more targets to chase when the idiot had just spent how long frowning at Andrew in wary confusion when Andrew had nodded to him that day... it was time for a break.

Andrew left his quarters to find Wymack standing out in the hallway waiting for him; he’d known the man was out there due to the spirits and gave him a cool look as he closed the door behind him. “Aren’t you a little old to go clubbing?”

Wymack sighed as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Always a fucking pleasure to talk to you,” he complained as he fell instep beside Andrew, since Andrew wasn’t wasting any time in meeting up with the others. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to leave the knowe?”

“We’re going straight to Eden’s Twilight, which is neutral territory,” Andrew explained, having expected Wymack to complain as soon as he and the others had made plans for that evening. “Riko truly can’t start anything there without setting off a war with most of the Fae, and we’ll have more than enough people on hand to fight on our side if he proves stupid.” The staff of the place were loyal to Andrew and his family, at the least. “Also, it’s a good way to pick up some useful information and gossip, which we won’t get if we stay in the damn knowe all the time.”

“Dammit.” Wymack’s right hand dropped to rub at the hilt of the large knife sheathed in his worn sword belt. “Just be careful, okay? I can see the sense in it – well, not in Kevin getting trashed and whatever else bullshit the four of you get into, but in at least going to a sanctuary site if you have to leave the knowe and getting us some good intel. Come back in one piece, _all_ of you.”

Andrew gave him a two-finger salute as he stepped out into the gardens, intent on one more stop before he met up with the others; he was getting better at tracking Neil down now due to their bond, something that wasn’t very welcome but came in handy. The shadow walker was in the main garden with the two ever-present shadow wolves, Matt and Dan, amusement and an almost peaceful feeling bubbling into Andrew as he played some sort of game with the two Fae, something that was an odd mix of ‘catch’ and ‘football’. The object of the game was a bright red ball which the wolves and Neil would snatch away from a laughing Matt or Dan (the wolves doing the brunt of the physical work since Neil still was unwilling to allow more than the most fleeting of touches – he would put his speed to good use once they knocked the other Fae to the ground) and then run to what looked to be some jury-rigged goal. Dan and Matt appeared to have a more difficult time getting the ball back from Neil with the wolves running interference and their obvious reluctance to tackle him, though Matt used a lick of flames to startle Neil into dropping the ball while Andrew watched.

He felt that now-familiar bitterness twist inside of him at the sight of Neil smiling at Matt for the clever tactic, at the way Neil allowed Dan to tousle his hair for a moment and how he could spend time with the Fae without scowling or cursing. How he felt _happy_ just then.

A happiness which morphed into wariness and curiosity when Neil caught sight of Andrew standing off to the side, so he nodded to Matt before jogging away with the two mutts at his heels. “Uhm, is everything all right?” Neil’s fine brows drew together as he noticed what Andrew was wearing, the tight black t-shirt and the nice jeans, the scuff-free black leather boots. “Are you going somewhere?” Now the wariness outweighed the curiosity and he took a step back while the mutts moved forward in a protective manner.

“The four of us are going out tonight, to the club.” Andrew didn’t think he needed to clarify which ‘four’ he meant. “I know it’s not your thing,” _that_ was an understatement, “but thanks to Renee’s fuckup, I figured I’d check to see if you wanted to come.” They hadn’t been apart for more than fifteen minutes or so since they’d been ‘stuck’ together, so Andrew wasn’t certain if the bond would allow so much distance between them – would allow one of them in the Fae realm and another in the mortal world for any length of time.

Neil chewed on his bottom lip as he considered the question, which Andrew refused to look at for more than a second or two; he distracted himself by lighting a cigarette. “Ah, I really don’t want to go back there,” Neil admitted. “We might as well see what happens.”

“Whatever,” Andrew said as he snapped the lighter shut. “Just know that I’m not going to rush back if it’s bad.” He’d have alcohol to get him through the night at least.

“Whatever,” Neil echoed, now his emotions more annoyed than wary. “Have fun getting drunk.” He waved his right hand in the air, the motion one of dismissal, as he turned away. The smaller of the two mutts followed him like a faithful shadow, while the larger of the two – Nuit, from what he’d heard Neil say a couple of times – paused to give Andrew a long stare for several heartbeats. Andrew blew out smoke at the beast before he walked away, displeased at the idea of being given shit by an _animal_ of all things.

Nicky was bouncing with excitement for a night out, Aaron frowning as always but tapping his right fingers impatiently against his thigh in a sign that he was just as eager, and Kevin… Kevin was already well on his way to drunk. For someone who had jumped at the opportunity for a night out, it appeared that nerves were now setting in.

Andrew had a couple of spirits watch over the coward to make sure that Kevin didn’t walk into any trees as they left the knowe, and felt… felt a disorienting sensation when he crossed over to the mortal world. Felt something ‘pull’ inside of his chest, along with a pulse of unhappiness from Neil, which clued him in on it being a ‘bond’ thing – and worse than the last time he’d left the knowe. His lips thinning over that fact, he had Nicky drive them to the club just in case there were any more ‘side effects’.

There were.

By the time they got to the club, it was sheer determination which enabled Andrew to get out of the car and walk to Eden’s Twilight due to the pain inside of his chest and the echo of it inside of his head. Whatever the hell the bond was between him and Neil, it didn’t like the space between them - either all the miles, the different realms or both. He felt as if someone had stabbed a dull knife into his chest to carve out a vital piece of his body, and now he was hemorrhaging on top of it.

He didn’t care what it took, he was breaking the damn thing – and soon.

Nicky gave him a concerned look and almost reached for him as he stumbled toward the front of the club, but one look from him in return made his cousin back off and help Kevin instead. Aaron managed a slight frown for him, which probably meant that he looked like shit, so Andrew drew himself up as straight as he could and had the spirits support him a little as they made their way into the club, through the crowd and toward the bar where Roland always worked.

Roland did a double-take when he saw them, his eyes going wide when Andrew slumped against the bar. “I didn’t think I’d see you for a while.”

“The usual,” Andrew snapped. “And a double-shot of ambrosia.”

That made Roland’s brows rise almost to his hairline, but he had the intelligence to start grabbing bottles. “Sure thing.” As he poured their order, he glanced over at Kevin for a moment. “If you’ve got the time, how about chatting with me a little during my break? We can catch up on some things.”

Nicky leered at that while Aaron’s expression turned into one of disgust, yet all Kevin did was stare at the drinks being set down on the tray in front of Roland; Andrew knew that his family and friend had figured out that there was something between him and the bartender over the years, especially after Kevin had dragged him out of the storeroom during their last visit. Since it was just a casual thing, he didn’t really care – it was just him scratching an itch whenever he had a need, much like the ‘fun’ Nicky had whenever apart from Erik. It wasn’t anything like Aaron’s misguided attempts to date mortal women which always ended up in disaster (which ended up in Andrew having to clean up the mess) or Kevin… well, actually Kevin didn’t do anything but drink, practice magic and fighting, study and annoy people since coming to the Foxhole Court, though there had been rumors of him and a former Evermore knight.

Andrew wasn’t certain that Roland meant for them to do more than talk since he wasn’t getting the usual signal, so he gave a curt nod. Roland smiled at that and continued to pour their drinks; as soon as the ambrosia appeared, Andrew grabbed it and tossed the shot back, then sighed as he felt some of the adverse effects of the bond melt away. He could stand up straighter as energy slowly spread through his body and some of the pain eased – at least for him. Neil was now an angry, wounded presence in his mind, a presence he did his best to ignore.

“See you in a bit,” Roland called out as Andrew picked up the tray and followed the others to an empty table, where Nicky and Aaron descended upon the drinks with an evident desperation. Kevin was a bit more hesitant which was highly unusual, causing Andrew to eye him with consideration. “Having second thoughts?”

“It’s one thing for Riko to attack a small knowe, another thing entirely or him to break the tradition of sanctuary,” Kevin said as he picked up a double-shot of vodka. “But… I don’t know, we hurt him.” Kevin paused to toss back the shot then gave Andrew a bleak look. “He won’t stand for that, him or the Ma- ah, Tetsuji.”

Nicky scoffed at that as he set down an empty shot glass. “But what can he do to us, huh?” His chin jutted out as he wiped at his lips. “Neil’s one of us now, and people are getting tired of the Moriyama bullshit. He tries anything again, he’ll just get smacked down even harder.”

“God, you’re such an idiot,” Aaron muttered before he had another shot, his expression one of repugnance. “How are we even related?”

That earned him a finger from his cousin. “Fuck you, why don’t you try to-“

“Finish your drinks and get out of here,” Andrew told the morons with a rare bit of heat in his voice. “You have to be back in an hour.”

Nicky gulped at the command then scrambled to pick up his shots, while Aaron gave him a haughty look as if to convey that he wasn’t cowed in the slightest, even if his right hand was quick to snatch up the glasses as well. Meanwhile, Kevin steadily went through all of the vodka shots in a determined manner. Andrew watched the three of them before he resumed drinking as well, the whiskey shots a rough burn after the smoothness of the ambrosia.

Once they were done, Nicky and Aaron scurried off onto the dance floor while Andrew lit a cigarette and sent a spirit to watch them, while Kevin took to rambling on about various stories where Maeb’s gauntlet had protected her from spells or attacks (usually from Titania or one of Titania’s bloodline). Andrew could tell that the coward was itching to get his hands on the thing, that or wheedle Neil into letting him try some spells against it, but so far Neil was proving stubborn on the matter. Funny, how ‘stubborn’ one could be when they had a few shadow wolves to back them up.

The pain and the exhaustion steadily increased the longer Andrew sat in the club, so he was grateful when he returned to the bar shortly before the hour mark for another round of drinks and Roland had two double-shots of ambrosia waiting for him. He did one right away, and after telling Roland that he’d see him in a few more minutes, finished the other when he returned with the fresh round of drinks back at the table. “Stay here,” he told Aaron and Nicky as his gaze flickered toward Kevin. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Sure you will,” Nicky said, his voice thick with innuendo. “Have fun!”

Andrew had one of the spirits he was leaving to watch over the morons smack Nicky on the back of the head while he turned away, and had the woman spirit ‘assist’ in getting him through the crowd without too much trouble. There were a few grumbled complaints sent his way, at least until the people making them got a good look at him and then shut up.

Roland was leaning against the wall in the store room, for once with a serious expression on his handsome face when Andrew entered. “Well, you’re looking a bit better now,” he said by way of greeting. “What’s going on that you of all people need ambrosia?”

Andrew ignored the question for one of his own. “What have you heard about the Moriyamas and the Foxhole Court?”

His bluntness made Roland sigh before he waved his hand toward the door, and Andrew felt a bit of magic which he assumed to be an anti-eavesdropping spell since things grew quiet in the small room all of a sudden. “Enough to make me grow concerned,” Roland admitted as he straightened up; Andrew took that as a sign that he better settle in for a story and sat down on a large box of cleaning supplies to conserve his energy. “The Moriyamas are trying to convince everyone that Wymack kidnapped one of their own and is holding him against his will.”

Andrew scoffed at that. “Nathaniel Wesninski.”

“Yeah.” Roland smiled a little as he shook his head. “No one’s buying it, not when all the talk a short while ago was about how he can slip into any knowe despite the wards, and everyone knows that Wymack is all about free will and second chances. He puts himself into debt getting people _out_ of tight spots, not locking them up.”

The man was a fool all right. “Anything else?”

“Since the smear campaign seems to be failing, rumor is that the Moriyamas are putting together a case to take to the High Court,” Roland warned him. “I thought you might want to give Wymack a head’s up about that – I’ve got a… customer who deals with them,” he said with a sly smile, “and Tetsuji’s been going back and forth there a lot lately, but for private discussions. Wymack needs to be prepared for when he gets the summons.”

Now that made all the pain worthwhile. “Does your _customer_ ,” ‘fuckbuddy’ more like it, not that Andrew cared except that it most likely ensured that Roland’s source was trustworthy, “know if Tetsuji is buying off the High Court?”

Roland shrugged as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “He might be able to buy one or two, but not all of them. I think his plan is to have everything lined up in his favor first then call Wymack in unprepared, which is why it’s good you showed up now. Everyone knows that Wymack is a man of his word, but a man of _words,_ he’s not.” The Tuatha de Danann appeared pleased with his clever wordplay just then.

It was a good thing they had Bee, and Kevin would help out as well since he could be a charming bastard at times, since Andrew could all too easily imagine Wymack before the Fae’s North American High Court going ‘Tetsuji’s a lying bastard now leave Neil and Kevin the fuck alone, ‘nuff said’ as his main argument.

Andrew felt a strong urge for another round of drinks.

“Anything else?” he asked as he rubbed at his chest, which still ached despite all of the ambrosia.

“Just to prepare yourself for a summons to the High Court, and know that a lot of Fae are happier with Wesninski under Wymack’s control than Moriyama’s.” Roland’s smile slipped a little. “Though they’ll snatch up the shadow walker in a heartbeat if they think they have a shot at him.”

Wasn’t it interesting, that Roland hadn’t mentioned the mutts at all? Andrew gave him another scoff. “That’s easier said than done, and he’s a fucking headache.” In more ways than one. “They’re better off without him.”

“Says the man who doesn’t have to worry about a Fae who can slip into _his_ knowe and kill everyone one night,” Roland pointed out, all traces of humor gone.

It was difficult to argue with that, so all Andrew did was shrug, to which Roland gave him an incredulous look for a couple of seconds before shaking his head. “Anything else?” Andrew repeated.

“I think that’s more than enough,” Roland said, a hint of bitterness in his voice before he sighed and shook his head. “So, you have a few more minutes?” he asked, the sly smile back on his face.

Andrew considered the question, considered the fact that he probably wouldn’t be able to leave the Foxhole Court anytime soon if Tetsuji was up to playing games, considered his own conflicted emotions toward Neil and then rose to his feet. “A _few_ ,” he said, making certain to stress the last word.

“Such sweet talk,” Roland murmured as he watched Andrew approach with evident appreciation in his eyes. “How are we doing this, other than fast and dirty?”

“Hands against the wall,” Andrew ordered, and had the spirit with him pin Roland’s hands there when the Tuatha de Danann held them above his head with an eager grin. Mindful of the others waiting for him and Kevin’s paranoia, Andrew wasted no time unbuttoning Roland’s tight jeans and then his own while he nipped at the dark skin of the arched throat in front of him. Roland let out a low moan at the feel of Andrew’s lips, followed by an even lower one when Andrew’s right hand slipped into his pants.

Desire welled inside of Andrew, desire and pleasure at the way Roland responded to him, so pliant before him yet quickly hard beneath his touch. It made him hard, too, helped to chase away the pain and lingering exhaustion as his nerves tingled with something _so much_ better, as his heartbeat sped up and breathing grew heavier. Pleasure coiled inside of him with each stroke of his hand along his cock, with how each stroke and scrape of his teeth made Roland shudder and moan and buck against him.

At first he ignored the emotions in his head, well used to pushing aside anything negative, with denying himself the fact that he felt pain or fear or- well used to shutting such things away. He was doing everything he could just then to focus on _Roland_ , on what was happening in the room, on forgetting what waited for him back at the knowe… except in a corner of his mind the pain kept building. Except it wasn’t just pain, it was fear and panic and something much darker, something so sharp and bitter that it burst through the wall that Andrew had tried to build in his head and made him stumble back from Roland as he gasped and clutched at his temples.

“What the fuck?” Roland demanded as he strained at the hold that the spirit had on his wrists, face twisted in anger before he seemed to notice that there was something wrong with Andrew. “Hey, are you all right?”

No, he wasn’t. Andrew struggled to breathe through the pain and overwhelming emotions, to remain on his feet as he stumbled back over to the boxes to more or less sit down. It took him several seconds before he could say anything, before the idiot on the other end of their bond stopped swamping him with that punishing emotion. Not that it was so much better afterward, but at least Andrew could move his head without feeling as if icepicks were stabbing into it with the slightest of motion.

Note to self – no sex life until he figured out a way to break the bond. Also, kill Renee.

“I’m gonna need a bottle of ambrosia,” he told Roland as he heaved himself onto his feet and called the spirit to him while he tucked his now flaccid cock back into his pants.

“No shit, you look worse than when you arrived.” Roland grimaced at his own hard cock then managed to make himself more or less decent, though his gait was a bit stiff as they left the store room. “I’ll have someone send it to the table.”

Andrew gave him a weak salute for that, and had a feeling that he probably wasn’t going to get too many offers to join the bartender on his breaks in the future since that was twice now that he’d left the man ‘hanging’. Unable to care at the moment, Andrew was almost back at the table when one of the spirits he’d left to watch over the others rushed toward him, its shrill voice doing nothing for his aching head.

It seemed that Kevin had a reason to be paranoid after all.

He had the two spirits shove everyone out of his way so he could reach the table as quickly as possible and found a familiar figure standing a few feet from it while Aaron and Nicky stood guard in front of a pale Kevin.

A pale Kevin who was staring at Jean, the one Evermore knight whom Neil had spared for some unknown reason.

“Oh look, a little birdy who’s lost his way. What brought you here?” Andrew asked as he had one of the spirits shove Jean, who was dressed in black jeans and a black sweater, farther away from Kevin; he wished he could do more, but Eden’s was a ‘safe’ place and fighting was discouraged, unfortunately.

Jean glared at him as he stumbled aside but caught himself on a nearby table. “Ah, I see the guard dog has arrived.” He sneered at Andrew as he stood up straight. “Such a loud bark for someone so small.”

Andrew gave him the barest hint of a smile, the slight parting of lips to show teeth. “Sure, now you’re all brave when there’s no other _dogs_ around, aren’t you?” He noticed how Jean flinched at that and Kevin swore in French. “Feel like coming back to the Foxhole Court anytime soon?”

Jean muttered something in French before he gave Andrew a cold smile. “Only someone as ill-bred as trash like you would threaten with something you don’t even control. What do _I_ have to fear from Nathaniel, hmm?” When Andrew gave him a flat look in return, the smile strengthened. “No answer, eh?”

“Is that why Riko sent you?” Andrew asked as he struggled to control the flare of anger he felt at that taunt, at the French bastard’s certainty that Neil would never harm him. Just what the hell was between the two men? Why didn’t Neil hate someone who was tied to Evermore?

The smile faded from Jean’s lips as he glanced over at Kevin. “Somewhat. Before you raise your hackles, gutter-bred mongrel that you are,” Nicky glared at that insult while Aaron’s face twisted with hatred, “know that I’m just here to deliver a message.”

When Andrew went to move closer to the Leannan Sidhe, Kevin threw out an arm in front of him. “What is it?” he asked, his voice rough and left hand trembling against Andrew’s chest.

For a moment something resembling pity flashed across Jean’s face before he schooled it into blankness. “You know where you belong. The Master has allowed you this time to heal, to find your balance,” both Nicky and Aaron scoffed at that ‘take’ on Kevin’s time away from Evermore, “but enough of your childish defiance. Your mother left you with the Master for a reason, so come home.” Andrew found it interesting how Jean couldn’t say the word ‘home’ without a trace of bitterness.

Kevin’s hand continued to tremble through most of the message, at least until Jean mentioned his mother – then it clenched into a fist and dropped to his waist. “Is that all?” he asked as his cheeks flushed a mottled red, the two thin scars on his left cheek standing out in stark contrast.

Jean hesitated for a moment as he glanced at Andrew before he switched into French for a minute or two, during which Kevin flinched at least once. During that time, one of the servers, a Brownie changeling, edged toward the table to drop off the ambrosia, which Andrew snatched to drink straight from the bottle in hopes of quelling the pain in his head.

When Jean fell quiet, Kevin snatched up one of the remaining shots at the table – the whiskey ones that Andrew had intended to finish when he got back from talking to Roland – and tossed it back with a shudder. “I’m not going back,” was all he said when he set the glass down.

Jean didn’t seem surprised to hear that. “An unwise decision, Day. Their patience has a limit.” His lips twisted in something grim for a moment before he shook his head. “Be sure to warn Nathaniel, as he doesn’t deserve to pay for your foolishness,” he said as he turned away.

Andrew slammed down the mostly empty bottle and grabbed the bastard’s arm to yank him back. “Oi, Frenchie, what was that about Neil?”

“Let me go, _sale porc_ ,” Jean hissed as he jerked his arm free. “Nathaniel is no concern of yours.”

“Hmm, no, wrong.” Andrew gave him another sliver of a smile. “He’s a Fox now, which means Riko needs to let him go.”

For some reason that statement made Jean’s grey eyes light up with amusement – at least for a moment. “He’s a Wesninski, and that means he belongs at Evermore, too,” he said in a defeated manner.

If there was one thing Andrew hated (one of many in the end), it was the feeling that he was missing something, and he felt that there was something going on between Neil and Jean, some subtext that he should know but didn’t. Also, several of the club’s bouncers had taken to loitering around the table; if it weren’t for that fact that he’d worked as one for years, that Aaron and Nicky were former staff as well, they’d be doing more than standing around and watching considering that knights from two rival knowes were facing off against each other in a sanctuary, so Andrew merely narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue as he turned away from Jean before he gave in to the urge to break out the knives.

The Leannan Sidhe used that as an opportunity to leave, and as the bouncers faded back into the crowd, Kevin moaned before snatching up another shot of whiskey. “That’s… that’s not good, Riko sending Jean. He _never_ sends Jean for something like this.” Kevin looked as if he was going to say something else before he shook his head and gulped down the shot.

So why send the Frenchie now? “How well do you know him?” Kevin had talked a bit about Jean before, had mentioned training with him, the fact that Jean was reliable, was good at fighting both with weapons and magic. Had mentioned that he’d ended up at Evermore because of his parents, something about an owed debt. From things left unsaid, Andrew got the feeling that Jean had been a friend of sorts – at least, when Riko hadn’t dominated Kevin’s time and attention. “Is Tetsuji trying to use him against you?”

Kevin seemed to have to think about that. “Uhm… he’s about the only one of the Ma- ah, Tetsuji’s people I’d trust,” Kevin admitted. “At least, to a point. He’ll do whatever Riko or Tetsuji tells him to do, he’s sworn to them, after all.”

Not like Kevin had that much of a leg to stand on, considering he still thought of Tetsuji as ‘the Master’ most of the time. “What did he say to you in French? Was it about Neil?” as Andrew spoke, Nicky and Aaron watched on in silence while leaning against the table as if afraid of drawing attention to themselves.

The question made Kevin finish off the last shot of whiskey before he spoke again. “He… I’m to tell Neil that if he doesn’t return to Evermore soon, his father will get involved,” Kevin said as he swiped at his face with a shaky hand. “And that… I don’t quite understand it, but something about ‘not even being less stubborn and prideful this time will save him’.”

Like that didn’t sound rather cryptic, but even with all of the ambrosia Andrew’s head still hurt so he motioned for the others to follow.

“Wait, we’re leaving?” Nicky asked as he fumbled from the table. “Already?”

Aaron huffed as he shoved his cousin forward. “You waiting for any more Moriyama assholes to show up tonight?”

“No, but-“

Andrew ignored them as he flagged down a passing server and shoved a wad of money at her to cover for their drinks that night. As much as he hated the fact, all he wanted was to get back to the Foxhole Court, for something to make the terrible ache inside of him and the pounding in his head to go away.

Kevin gave him an odd look when they reached the parking lot. “How’s Neil?” When Andrew didn’t answer, he sighed. “That bad, huh?”

“Kevin? Shut up,” Andrew warned as he threw his car keys at Nicky.

It was a quiet ride back to the knowe.

As soon as they returned to the fairy realm, some of the pain and weariness eased in Andrew’s body, but Neil’s emotions were still a turbulent mix of that darkness and anger, were something jagged and searing inside of his head which did nothing for his headache.

Nor did the sight of a glowering Wymack waiting for them just inside of the knowe. The man stood there with his arms crossed over his chest and his sword hung from his belt, which was never a good sign. “I suppose it’s amazing that you listened to me for once.”

Nicky gave him a weak wave. “Uhm, hi?” His smile was just as feeble. “Something happen while we were gone?”

Wymack’s dark eyes narrowed as he looked over the four of them, seeming to linger on Kevin and Andrew the longest. “Oh, nothing _that_ interesting, just a bunch of shadow wolves taking up camp in the garden and not letting anyone near Neil, not even Abby.” He gave Andrew a pointed look after that bit of news. “Happened over an hour ago. Funny how the kid was fine until you took off for some fun. Something you want to tell me?”

“Yes.” Andrew almost snorted at Wymack’s surprised expression but he was too tired just then. “Tetsuji’s lining things up to call you before the High Court over how you ‘stole’ Neil from him, probably Kevin too.” Kevin started at that while Wymack shook his head. “Best get the speech prepared, and something better than ‘did not’.”

“We’re fucking doomed,” Aaron mumbled as he shoved his phone back into his front right pocket.

“Oh my god I’m too young and beautiful to die,” Nicky agreed.

Wymack’s scowl went up a notch as he pointed behind him. “Get the fuck out of my sight. I don’t even care if a bunch of maggots like you are eaten by those damn wolves at this point, just go.”

Nicky sniffed as he pushed Aaron in front of him as if using his cousin as a shield. “You know you’d be inconsolable without us here.”

“Go!”

While the two morons left, Wymack once more turned his attention to Kevin and Andrew – as he looked at Kevin, his expression softened. “We’ll figure something out,” he promised the coward. “Not even Tetsuji has enough power to sway the High Court, so this is actually our best chance, now that we’re forewarned.”

Kevin gave a curt nod as he rubbed at the back of his left hand. “I… I know. But he’ll do his best to stack things in his favor.”

“He’s still dealing with a bunch of old as fuck Fae who don’t like uppity bastards trying to tell them what to do.” Wymack gave him an encouraging smile. “It’ll work out, you’ll see.”

Kevin was quiet for a moment before he smiled back, the expression faint but heartfelt; Andrew didn’t understand why Wymack could reach the coward at certain times, but at least _someone_ could and save them all a bit of grief.

The two of them walked off together while talking about how best to deal with the High Court, which left Andrew alone except for the spirits. For a moment he debated just going to his quarters and sleeping however long his body let him, before he scrubbed at his scalp with his right hand and forced himself to go seek out a certain idiot.

He found him in the heart of the main garden, where there was a large willow tree with its branches trailing down to the ground; Neil and the mutts had taken shelter beneath the silver and green canopy where it was always dark, of course, save for the soft glow of pixie wings. A few of the tiny Fae darted at Andrew, only to hiss and swerve away when the spirits rushed to block them.

“Still playing with the pixies, Neil?” Andrew called out. “Got tired of-“ He came to a halt when two shadow wolves flowed through the wall of greenery with their teeth bared and ears slicked back against their triangular skulls. The spirits raced back to him in an effort to avoid the creatures.

“Neil? Call off the mutts.” Andrew stood there with his fingers running along opposite armbands as he eyed the obviously hostile wolves.

There was a pulse of fresh anger over the bond followed by a wave of exhaustion. “Go away, Andrew,” Neil told him, his voice shaded with the pain that had plagued Andrew ever since he’d left the knowe.

“Stop being so dramatic, we need to talk.” Andrew wanted to know more about Jean, about why the Fae was so certain that Neil wouldn’t harm him. He wanted a straight answer for once on why Neil had called off the wolves over a week ago, had let _Riko_ go just to avoid harming the French bastard, wanted – dammit, he wasn’t _used_ to wanting. Had thought himself broken of the habit after so many years of never getting the things he desired, of it being such a useless, frustrating emotion. Then a messed-up, almost broken idiot had stumbled into his life and he kept being proven wrong on so many fronts.

“No, we don’t.” As if to emphasis that, a third shadow wolf joined the other two, the large one back from the day they’d first shown up, the one which looked as if it could knock Andrew down and bite his limbs in half with ease.  “Just… _go_.”

Andrew thought about what Wymack had said, about what he’d felt when he’d been with Roland. “Look, I didn’t-“

There was a vicious spate of old Fae and the trio of shadow wolves took an ominous step forward while the pixies twittered about in the air, their voices high and mocking. “We’ll talk when you stop being a little shit,” Andrew insisted as he stepped back, his glare wasted on the mutts before he turned around to stalk back to the main building.

Dammit, it wasn’t often when he tried to explain himself, when he… when he _tried_. Words twisted on him when it came to himself, turned sharp and biting when he dredged up the past or attempted to give insight to the mess inside of his head. Yet he would _try_ for Neil – and the idiot didn’t want any of it.

Andrew wished he could say that it was all Neil’s fault, that the shadow walker was acting irrational… but things always got so twisted between them somehow, too. Sometimes it wasn’t because of Andrew, and sometimes it was. Tonight? Andrew had to admit that tonight was his fault, even if it hadn’t been intentional. He should have remembered about the bond, should have thought about how Neil would react to feeling his emotions when he was with Roland.

With that in mind, he continued past his quarters to Bee’s work room, and wasn’t surprised when he found her there, still awake and busy with some potion. “Quite the wild woman, you.”

Bee smiled as she gave the potion a quick stir. “Oh, there’s some stories to be told, but we’re all sworn to secrecy. Too much debauchery for an innocent like you.”

“Oh Bee, you really need to better watch what you’re inhaling,” Andrew chided as he tipped over a stack of books. “So delusional, you are.”

“But that’s half the fun.” Her smile widened for a moment before it faded away, and she seemed to focus on finishing the potion for about a minute while he dumped some fine white quartz out of a jar onto the top of a work table and began to trace random patterns in it. “I figured you’d need something for that head of yours everything with Neil. Just how badly did the bond react tonight?”

Andrew slashed his right forefinger through the sand. “How should I go about killing Renee, do you think? Poison’s obviously out, and her talent with liquids makes things tricky.” She could stop the bleeding of almost any wound, and he would need the element of surprise. “Bolt to the eye, maybe?” He’d need to improve his shooting skills.

“I’ll take that as a ‘very bad’.” Bee sighed as she poured the potion into a mug then chanted something to help cool it down. “If you kill her, she can’t help break the geas.”

“She doesn’t think she can break them in the first place,” Andrew reminded Bee as she handed him the mug; at least this time, the potion smelled like vanilla.

Bee fixed him with a level look. “Did something else happen tonight?”

He was quiet as he sipped the potion, which wasn’t quite as sweet as the scent indicated but at least it was quick to ease the pain in his head. “I don’t like Leannan Sidhe,” he decided.

“Hmm, we are an insightful race,” Bee agreed with a slight smile. “I can see how you’d find it distasteful, even if I’ve a feeling you might have one or two of us in that mysterious family tree of yours.”

Andrew gave her the finger with his left hand while he continued to drink until the potion was all gone. While he did that, the spirits ‘poked’ around the large room, pushing various bottles and plants about but otherwise not disturbing anything.

When he handed the mug back to Bee, she nodded once. “So what happened?”

He sighed as he sat down on one of the stools around the table. “I messed up,” he confessed; Bee was one of the only people he was able to admit something like that to, could say such things to because he knew how impartial she was at times like these.

“You mean you _feel_ you messed up,” she clarified as she sat down a couple of feet from him, enough space between them so he didn’t feel crowded. “How about we examine the facts first before we make that determination, hmm?”

“No, I’m rather certain where the blame lies on this one.” Andrew slipped a knife free from his left armband so he could play with it, could flip it over his fingers as something to help keep him calm. “I set Neil off tonight because I didn’t think.”

“Okay.” Bee was quiet for a moment before she got up and walked away. “Do you want some hot chocolate? Just one cup tonight, I don’t know how long it’s going to be before David allows us out to shop again.”

Andrew would have smiled at the offer, if he was one for smiling; he remembered how excited Bee had been when she’d discovered the powdered form of the drink, when she realized that it didn’t have to be made from milk and melted chocolate and vanilla and everything else, and they’d spent quite a few nights arguing over if whether or not one should make it with hot milk or water. It made Andrew wonder what would happen in another five or ten decades, what thing he’d once found so incredulous as a child would soon become commonplace (well, there were the phones these days, he supposed, but that didn’t really impress him) that he’d become overly emotion upon seeing it.

It was difficult to think of being excited about anything when he felt a good bit of loathing for himself at the moment.

Soon enough, Bee returned with two mugs of hot chocolate, one of which she set down near Andrew. “You’re probably going to say that it tastes better than the potion.”

“No ‘probably’ about it.” He picked it up and took a cautious sip, the corner of his lips tugging downward when he realized that it would need a few minutes to cool.

Bee caught that and smiled, the expression fleeting. “Now then, we were talking about your belief in that you’d done something to Neil tonight. Explain.”

Sometimes Bee’s psychobabble shit could be so wearisome, and that was before Andrew had been through the mental wringer thanks to some fucked-up geas. However, the potion she’d given him worked even better than the ambrosia and he knew that if he went to his quarters instead and tried to sleep, he’d be plagued with nightmares so best to just talk it out while he waited on his hot chocolate. “I went to the club and the bond… it doesn’t react well to us being apart.”

“No, I imagine it wouldn’t, not when the original intention was to keep Neil from slipping away in the first place.”

Andrew’s frown deepened as he gave Bee a cold look. “No one thought to warn me?”

“Some things have to be learned the hard way,” Bee told him with a casual shrug while she tapped the fingers of her right hand against the mug. “We were watching over Neil to make sure it didn’t get… well, we were watching over Neil.” She had the grace to appear a bit ashamed for a moment. “At least until more shadow wolves returned, and then he wouldn’t tell us what was going on, if it was the bond or something else.”

Nice to know that he wasn’t only giving Andrew the cold shoulder. “I figured that since I was at the club that I’d at least make the best of it,” Andrew continued. “Roland had some information for me, so I met up with him during his break.” As soon as he mentioned the bartender, Bee’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“And did you only talk?” she asked in a too-bland manner.

Andrew set the mug of hot chocolate aside as the taste of bile flooded his mouth. “At first.” Bee knew about him and Roland, had encouraged the relationship at first – until she felt that Andrew was using Roland as a crutch rather than a means to move on from his ‘trauma’. “Then I thought about how lousy I felt and that it would be nice to feel something better, that it might be a while before I saw him again so why not?” He picked up the knife he’d set aside when Bee had handed him the mug and felt the urge to lash out at something, to- but he’d been the one to hurt Neil so what, slash it along his own flesh? That would only hurt Neil yet again.

He started when he realized that one of the spirits had knocked over some bottles of Bee’s and forced himself to calm down, to think clearly and to slip the knife back into its sheath in the armband. After he did that, he looked up to find Bee regarding him with concern.

“Andrew… you’re not infallible, you know. You’re not perfect, no one is. Why are you blaming yourself for something that wasn’t your fault?”

He huffed at that as he wrapped his arms around his chest. “I was there the night he came here, I saw the same things you did,” he reminded Bee. “I know what they did to him at Evermore. I never should have forgotten that, not when he’s stuck in my head and feeling what I feel.” Not when Neil could barely stand anyone touching him.

“Oh for – “ Bee set her mug aside as well. “I should have gone for the brandy,” she muttered while she rubbed at her eyes as if exhausted. “You’re just as affected by the bond, too, and it sounds as if you were thrown off-balance by it while at the club. Not to mention it’s a recent thing, what’s happened to the two of you, so there’s going to be a period of adjustment.” She dropped her hand to look over at him.  “And it’s not like Neil is blaming you.”

“Oh Bee, what happened to that insight, hmm? He is indeed blaming me, I just saw him.” Andrew slumped against the table and wished that she’d gone for the brandy, too.

“My insight’s just fine,” Bee grumbled as she picked up her mug. “I was there, remember? He didn’t say anything about you.”

“It sounds like he didn’t say much to you at all,” Andrew reminded her. “Just like he’s not saying much to me, other than ‘go away’.”

Bee smiled. “If he’s telling everyone that, how do you know he’s blaming you in particular?”

There were times when Andrew wondered if Bee was part of the SEC’s punishment along with the happy juice – oh, wait, not even Riko was fucked up enough to work with someone as evil as her. “Maybe because I had three shadow wolves growling at me?”

“They were lunging at David, one even snapped at him, and I don’t think Seth is going to leave his quarters anytime soon after being chased out of the garden.” Now Bee’s expression turned contemplative. “They do seem to allow you a lot more leeway than anyone else, I wonder if it’s because of the bond.”

For some reason, there was a lessening of the tightness in Andrew’s chest to hear that the mutts had reacted worse to Wymack and others. “Great, I’m beloved by a bunch of demon dogs, just what I always wanted,” he intoned in a flat manner.

“I am too tired to suffer through this much sarcasm,” Bee complained as she stood up. “To summarize - while I’m certain Neil’s not the happiest with you right now, don’t assume he hates you or you’d be chow for those demon dogs by now.” As always, Bee didn’t soften the blow – especially when she felt that one was being a bit of an asshole. “Second, give yourself a bit of a break, Andrew,” she told him with a gentle smile. “A lot’s going on with you right now, it’s going to affect how you think and react. You’re also your hardest judge, don’t forget.”

He glanced aside as he stood up. “I still shouldn’t have done it.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but you did. Now to learn from it and move on.”

Andrew detested pat answers like that, but in a way, Bee was right. He couldn’t take back what he’d done at the club, he could only figure out how to make the bond between him and Neil bearable for however long it lasted - hopefully not long at all, but he knew he wouldn't be lucky like that. So all he did was give her a curt nod before he left, mind a little more settled for the night, and finally returned to his own rooms.

It helped by that point that Neil had fallen asleep, probably surrounded by the mutts, so after a few sips of whiskey, Andrew was able to do the same. He had some dark dreams, the feel of hands on him in a couple of them, and then one where he was bound in his bed without any spirits to help him while Drake approached with the iron cuffs held in his hand.  Andrew woke up in the early morning from that nightmare and decided that it wasn't worth going back to sleep anymore.

What he did instead was got out of bed as a resolution filled him, a faint idea which grew more certain with each passing moment, went to wash off the sweat of the night from his body and prepared for the day. He dressed in comfortable clothes and a worn pair of ankle boots, packed enough for a couple days and then went to the kitchen where he grabbed enough food and water to last him through those days. Once everything was tucked into the large rucksack, he went to find Renee. When she wasn't in her rooms, he checked the soaking ponds outside and found her there, in one of the hot water pools.

"Hello Andrew." She didn't seem bothered with him disturbing her, with her clothes folded off to the side or the early hour of the day. "Going somewhere?"

"Yes." He didn't waste the time to explain anything, nor did she ask more than that. "You're going to look after Kevin and Aaron for me while I'm gone." He figured she owed him that at the very least after everything that had happened, and she was one of the - well, he figured she was more than up to anyone the Moriyamas would throw at the knowe while he was gone, considered her Maenad blood and all. "It'll only be for a couple of days."

She smiled at him as if pleased with the command. "Of course, I'm honored that you've asked."

He wasn't asking, he was ordering, but whatever, and didn't bother to say anything else. When he turned away, she wished him safe travels, which he ignored.

Skirting the newly claimed 'pixie' territory, he made his way to the massive willow tree, and wasn't surprised when two shadow wolves slipped through the dew-heavy branches before he and the spirits came too close. This time, at least, they stopped once the greenery slid from their sleek haunches and sat down, their dark eyes gleaming in the early morning half-light with an eerie intelligence, their pointed ears perked forward and their sharp fangs hidden. It only took a moment for Andrew to feel a stirring over the bond, a faint panic at first which quickly settled into mild grumpiness and curiosity before a couple more wolves preceded Neil out of the sanctuary of the tree.

The idiot rubbed at his eyes as he stumbled forward, his expression sleepy and his auburn hair a tangled mess with various curls sticking up at every which angle - half of it appearing to fall onto his face at that. His clothes, an old cotton tied-dyed t-shirt of Nicky's, slipped halfway down his left shoulder to reveal sharp bones and scarred skin, and it looked as if he'd slept with a knife strapped to his thigh. "What do you want?" His tone matched his emotions, more curious than anything, a bit grumpy though that might be due to him being tired.

"Come on, we're going somewhere," Andrew told him.

Right away Neil's expression turned to one of wariness and his emotions hardened. "I'm not going into the mortal world with you again." The two wolves near him stepped closer while the other two revealed a hint of fang in a clear warning.

"No, not there, to the Dark Road," Andrew clarified for the idiot. While Neil stared at him in shock, he clicked his tongue. "Not for long, I'm not going to risk turning into half-fox idiot like you, but for a day or two." Well, a day or two in that grey world, a bit longer elsewhere.

Neil continued to gawk at him for a few more seconds then shook his head while he clutched at the nape of the one wolf's neck - the smaller one, so Ombré, Andrew had heard him call it. "But... why?" The confusion was back in full force.

Because Andrew felt that something was owed after the previous night. Because it made Neil look at him with something other than anger or distrust for once. Because.... "Because everyone's tired of tripping over those stupid mutts of yours," he said. "That and you can get your own food for once."

"But...." Neil shook his head again then, much to Andrew's surprise, smiled. "Okay, one moment." He spun around on his bare heel to disappear back beneath the willow's foliage, only to return a couple of seconds later with the leather pouch he usually wore around his waist which contained the few personal items he possessed, from what Andrew had seen. "All right, let's go."

Andrew looked him up and down, took in the awful bed hair, the overlarge shirt, the loose pants that had obviously been cut down to size to 'fit' the idiot, the silver band around his right wrist. "Like that?"

Neil shrugged, the smile still on his lips as the rest of the shadow wolves came out to gather around him. "I can grab some different clothes once we get back on the Road."

Clothes that didn't belong to Nicky or Aaron or Wymack, which bothered Andrew to see them on Neil for some reason. "At least we shouldn't run into too many people there to see me with you," Andrew drawled as he settled the sack higher up on his back. If they did, they likely would have been sent by the Moriyamas and have to be killed, which was fine by him.

The remark drew a faint huff of amusement from Neil, whose smile faded once he finished buckling the pouch around his waist. "Uhm... I think... ah, give me your hand.” He gazed at Andrew with his own right hand held out in an evident sign that he wanted Andrew to grasp it – the person who did everything he could to avoid touching other people. Held out his hand to the person who also avoided touching other people.

“Why?” Andrew asked, his voice just as devoid of emotion as before.

“Uhm, I think it’ll make it easier, us going to the Dark Road.” Neil’s brows furrowed as he bit into that damn full bottom lip. “I know there’s that… _thing_ between us, but usually it helps if there’s a physical touch when we… well, it _helps_.”

Not very articulate, that explanation, but what did one expect of an idiot? Andrew sighed as he held out his right hand. “If you wanted to hold hands, you just had to say so.”

The glare he received as well as the rush of blistering emotion – mostly a mix of anger/frustration/embarrassment – made it entirely worthwhile, standing there that early in the morning and holding hands with someone he was magically bound to for the foreseeable future. “You’re an asshole,” Neil spat at him. Despite that less than stellar opinion, the wolves merely settled around Neil as if waiting for something.

“And you’re an idiot, so what?”

There was more cursing in old Fae before Neil took a deep breath. “Are you going to let me go this time?”

Andrew frowned as his fingers tightened around Neil’s; the shadow walker’s hands were smaller than his, the fingers long and slender and surprisingly warm to the touch. “Give me a second.” He closed his eyes, for a moment thrown off by the fact that he didn’t _mind_ touching Neil, and then forced such unwanted thoughts from his head as he focused on that it was all right to allow Neil to ‘escape’, that just then he wanted the both of them to reach the Dark Road.

It seemed that he’d just decided upon that and let out a breath, and then the world tilted around him and as he drew in some air and opened his eyes, he was in that nightmarish grey world. Except he had Neil beside him full of happiness and relief, a huge smile on his face as his fingers tightened around Andrew’s and didn’t try to pull away, as the shadow wolves let out excited yips and bounced about on their paws.

“I’m back,” Neil breathed out as his delight poured into Andrew, such a foreign emotion that Andrew felt light-headed from it, felt as if he was filled with a strange, invigorating energy. That feeling only intensified when he heard an unusual sound, when Neil burst into laughter as he tugged Andrew a bit closer. “I’m back!”

If Andrew had thought that Neil was an exotic, arresting sight before, it was nothing compared to what he looked like with his face lit up with joy, with his huge blue eyes shining with the emotion and mouth spread wide in a true smile, his sharp cheeks flushed with color and auburn curls tossed back as Neil raised his head to a grey sky to shout out in happiness.

Andrew… Andrew might have made a mistake in coming to the Dark Road with a certain idiot shadow walker.

Also, he really, _really_ was going to kill Renee.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> Poor Andrew, he's going through a bit of a ringer on this one. And like Bee says, he's his own worse enemy.
> 
> And road trip! Sorta!
> 
> Hmm, I can soo see Wymack's grand argument before the High Court being 'leave my precious kids the f*ck alone, you a-holes.' *facepalm* Really, maybe the Foxes can tie him up and leave him behind in the knowe, and have Renee argue for them.
> 
> Also, poor Seth.
> 
> As always, the comments and the kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> *******


	7. Be There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, another chapter. Hmm. Neil and Andrew alone together. Let the snark begin.
> 
> Just a warning that vague references to past abuses mentioned in previous chapters. Nothing new.
> 
> *******

*******

Neil felt at peace for the first time in too long - since before Evermore - and only stopped laughing when Nuit and Ombré let out loud, long howls which were answered in the distance by the rest of the pack. He was back on the Dark Road. He was _home_.

It wouldn’t be for long, not when he had a scowling Andrew standing next to him, calloused hand still held in his and odd emotions flowing over their link, but Neil didn’t care just then. However long he had on the Dark Road he would take, would savor, before he was forced to return to the Fae world, to the Foxhole Court. Perhaps the knowe wasn’t as bad as everywhere else, but it wasn’t… wasn’t _this_.

Nuit huffed as the pack howled again while Ombré nudged Neil in a clear sign that it was time to go. He smiled at Andrew and nodded in the direction where the pack was before he released the necromancer’s hand with a strange reluctance. “Come on.”

“Where?” Andrew’s emotions took on a thread of wariness though his face remained expressionless. “What’s out there?”

“You’ll see,” Neil told him as he and the wolves began to run in a loping pace since they had to deal with Andrew. The necromancer stared at them at first then began to curse as he rushed to catch up, while Neil laughed again. Those odd, warm feelings flared once more, leaving Neil to feel puzzled for a few seconds before he pushed them aside to savor the sensation of running on the Dark Road, the feel of the soft, spongy soil beneath his feet, the cool air against his skin and the sight of Nuit and Ombré at his side and the others fanning ahead. The sight of the grey sky stretching forever ahead and around him, of the black road in front of him for however long he wanted to run (and oh how he wanted to run, to keep going until his body gave out).

Andrew slowed them down, what with his wheezing and muttered curses and panted ‘fucking rabbit after all’s. Neil rolled his eyes at that and called him a dramatic asshole in French, but kept the pace relatively slow since he wasn’t sure if too much distance between them would affect whatever magic allowed Andrew to remain in the Dark Road without him being a shadow walker (the bond between them, obviously, but just _how_ did it work?). Neil also wasn’t in a hurry to piss off the man to the point that he changed his mind and returned them to the knowe.

Just why did Andrew decide to allow him back to the Dark Road? Yes, there was that damn bond between them now so Neil couldn’t run off on Andrew, as well as his oath to Wymack. There was the uncertainty over what would happen if one of them died as well (which was all that prevented Neil from encouraging the wolves to have a nice meal at the moment). So… why?

If it was so Neil could fetch his own food, Andrew was still there with him so the necromancer had to go through some effort for the errand. If it was about the wolves, then the rest of the knowe just had to leave Neil alone.

Neil didn’t understand Andrew, but nothing was new about that fact.

It didn’t take too long before they met up with the rest of the pack, the wolves swarming around Neil until he was knocked to the ground so they could lick at his face and hands and nuzzle his hair, while Andrew collapsed a few feet away while glaring at him. “I… hate you,” Andrew gasped out as he rolled onto his back with the bag beside him.

Funny, it didn’t feel like it just then, but Neil shrugged as he pushed Coquin aside. “What? That was a short run and we went slow because of you.” When Danseur came over to nudge him, he rubbed the young she-wolf’s ears. “Yes I missed you,” he assured her in old Fae.

Andrew made a garbled sound for a moment and continued to lie there for about a minute or two before he groaned then sat up. He still glared at Neil the entire time he dug through his right front pocket for what turned out to be those sticks of his – cigarettes. “I really hate you.”

“Perhaps you could run better if you didn’t smoke those things,” Neil pointed out as he wrinkled his nose and several of the wolves whined as well. By way of answer, Andrew blew a mouthful of smoke at him, and for a moment Neil recalled that night on the beach, remembered the acrid tang of smoke blowing back at him by an ocean breeze as he burned his mother’s body with the aid of a spell.

“Oi.” There was a snapping sound which shook Neil out of the memories, and he found himself back on the Dark Road with a blank-faced Andrew and the pack. “So, what do you really do here, other than play with the psychotic puppies?”

“They’re not psychotic,” Neil grumbled as he leaned back against Nuit. “And, uhm, you saw most of it.” When Andrew continued to stare at him, he smiled a little. “We run.” His smiled strengthened when he felt the man’s displeasure. “We run, the pack hunts, I forage for food, we rest.” He shrugged when disbelief filtered over the link even though he’d already told much the same to Andrew and Kevin – minus the part about the pack. “Occasionally we deal with annoying Fae, but that’s basically it.”

It was quiet, save for the faint whine or cough from one of the pack, while Andrew went through his bag to fetch a bottle of water then had a sip from it. “You spent however long out here doing nothing but that? No wonder you’re such an idiot.”

Neil scowled at him for that remark even though he was used to Andrew’s biting opinion of him by then. “I’ve spent most of my life running from my father, from-“ He shuddered as his right hand fell from petting the wolves to wrap around some of the scars littering his torso. “To be able to just exist? To do what I wanted because it felt good and not what I had to do?” His eyes narrowed at Andrew. “It was enough.”

Andrew was quiet again as he finished his cigarette and water. “You mentioned something about clothes, and you told Kevin that you found the gauntlet in some sort of cache.” He nodded to Neil’s right wrist. “I’m assuming the two are connected?”

“Yes.” For a moment Neil debated if he should say anything else, but while there was no more forced truths between them, it would go easier if he wasn’t so recalcitrant to speak, he supposed. “For whatever reason, there’s stuff hidden in the Dark Road if you know where to look, and I’ve marked a lot of those places down.” At Andrew’s flat look and faint sense of disbelief, Neil shrugged. “I didn’t have much else to do, and clothes wear out, knives grow dull. There would be an occasional need to resupply.”

“Kevin said that Maeb’s tied to the Dark Road in some way, that she might have created it or found it, and it’s believed that the big three might have used it when they fucked off with everyone else.” Andrew tapped his fingers against the empty water bottle before he dropped the cigarette butt into it then crushed the bottle into a more compact shape then placed it back into the bag; that surprised Neil at first, until he realized that the necromancer was probably doing his best to ensure that they didn’t leave a trail for others to follow. “All right, where’s one of these caches? Preferably by a place where we can camp for the night, somewhere safe.” Andrew’s hazel eyes narrowed as annoyance flared over the link. “I’m not spending the entire time here running around with you and the mutts.”

Neil couldn’t help but smile at that while he stood up. “Better to be half fox than half turtle.”

“The idiot thinks he’s amusing,” Andrew drawled as he retied his bag closed.

“Hmm.” Neil closed his eyes as he ‘felt’ along the Dark Road, as he got a feel for his surroundings, to reorient himself with the world, and after he once more was ‘settled’ with it, opened them to look around. “The best cache near your requirements is that way,” he said as he pointed off in a northwest direction.

Andrew eyed him with suspicion. “How do you know that? Everything looks the same here.”

“How can you call the spirits to you?” Neil countered. “It’s… it’s part of my magic somehow, or maybe it’s a result of me… well, because of everything.” He raised his right hand to rub at the tip of his ear, at its elongated, pointed shape which he’d never noticed until Evermore. “But I’m never lost when I’m here.”

“Huh, how handy.” Andrew stood up as well as he heaved the bag over one of his broad shoulders. “Another fucking run?”

Neil smiled at the displeasure he felt just then. “We really are going slow for you.”

For that, he got a flick at the hair falling onto his face, which he didn’t even flinch from since as always, Andrew was mindful of physically touching him – touching his skin unless Neil initiated the contact. “Fine, I’ll put up with another mad dash if you answer me this.” Neil tensed up at that, at a bargain he couldn’t really turn down since he was desperate to remain in the Dark Road for as long as possible, and noticed that Andrew’s full lips tugged downward. “Are you responsible for the pixies casting all those hexes?”

He let out a slow breath at what was a mostly innocuous question, considering what all Andrew could have asked. “Uhm, sort of?” At Andrew’s renewed narrowed gaze, he waggled his left hand about while he resumed rubbing Ombré’s ears. “I traded them some jinxes for information.”

Now Andrew was thoughtful and… was that a hint of approval? “You can bargain with pixies.” That didn’t sound like a question.

“They’re open to it if you speak their language,” Neil offered, and relaxed even more when Andrew snorted in evident amusement – well, perhaps ‘evident’ if one could sense his emotions.

“Of course, what’s Pixie when you know old Fae?” Then Andrew sighed. “Come on, let’s get this over with already.” He motioned for Neil to lead the way as his face once more became expressionless.

Neil hesitated only for a moment before Ombré nudged him forward, and the urge to run, to be surrounded by the pack became too much. Then it once more was the feel of the wind against his skin, the burn of muscles moving and air going in and out of his lungs, the joy of having the pack around him and being just as excited as him… but Andrew was there as well, was a presence in his head and a dark blur in the corner of his eye.

Since it had been so long, since he bore the new, iron-inflicted scars from Evermore, even Neil was a little winded when they finally reached the desired cache, though he felt amusement over the way that Andrew fell gasping to the ground once again. As he watched on, he felt an odd burst of energy and Andrew seemed to recover somewhat, so he assumed that the necromancer must have used his earth magic to recoup some strength. “Does that help, drawing energy from the ground?” Neil asked as he leaned against Nuit.

Andrew wiped the sweat off of his brow before he answered. “Somewhat. It speeds up healing and is handy in a fight, but it’s not a massive jolt or anything.” A slight frown, not much but compared to the impassiveness which had been there before, came over his handsome face. “What about when you take from a person?”

Neil supposed that they were trading a truth for a truth, in a way. “I suppose it’s what you could consider ‘a massive jolt’,” he confessed. “At least, usually it is. It’s a rush and can heal most of my wounds, can feed any spell I can think up and keep me going in a fight, though a lot of times it depends on how badly off I am in the first place.” He shrugged a little as his lips took on a bitter twist. “If I’m already bled out of magic and blood, it’s only going to be enough to keep me standing.”

It was quiet again as Andrew seemed to mull on that. “Unless you drain another poor bastard.”

That drew a weak laugh from Neil. “There is that, and I fail to find anything ‘poor’ about someone trying to kill me.” Or worse, as he did his best not to think about that one room in Evermore.

Andrew seemed to pick up on what was left unsaid as he stared down at his damp hand for a few seconds. “There a place to wash off around here?”

“There’s a small river past the trees,” Neil answered. “Let me go fetch some clean clothes.” A bath would feel good, and he could catch some fish to have something to eat, something other than fruit for once. “The cache is in those trees over there.” He nodded to the small grove of trees off in the near distance, farthest from the river.

“Wonderful.” Andrew heaved a small sigh as he stood up, so Neil did the same; most of the pack remained stretched out in their spots, but Ombré and Danseur tagged along to the trees. “Do they go everywhere with you?”

“Hmm? Mostly.” Neil smiled at Ombré as he stroked his hand along her back. “At least here, it really was a surprise to see them in the knowe.” He gave Andrew a pointed look. “You go everywhere with Kevin?”

“He’s not here now, is he?” Andrew shot back, and at Neil’s aggrieved sigh, scoffed. “Someone has to look after the coward, and I don’t see a bunch of magical mutts stepping up to do it.”

“Even they have their limits,” Neil offered as he thought about how bothersome Kevin could be with his single-mindedness, which Andrew didn’t seem to react to, other than a faint pulse of amusement.

It was… it was odd, to be talking this much to Andrew after so long of trading barbs and half-truths and circling around each other, after ignoring the fact that they were tied to each other. Neil supposed that part of it was that Andrew had made the overture to bring him here, to give him this so he was trying to get along and show some appreciation. To not do anything that would make the necromancer change his mind and drag him back to the knowe.

To ignore what had happened last night.

He didn’t believe that Andrew had done… _it_ intentionally, not when the- not when things had stopped quickly, not when Andrew had come back earlier than Neil had expected and tried to talk to him. And Neil was done thinking about that for now, especially since they’d reached the trees.

Danseur ran ahead and pounced on the pile of rocks which Neil had stacked over the cache as she made a faint yipping sound, while Neil smiled and gently pushed her aside. “I know, I can see it,” he told her.

“Can you understand them? You talk to them as if you can.”

“Uhm, sort of?” Neil gave cast a faint smile at Andrew and shrugged while he began to move the rocks aside. “Perhaps I’ve been around them long enough that I’ve picked up on the subtle difference in their barks and stuff, in their body language, but I’ve an idea of what they’re trying to convey.”

“Or perhaps you’re a crazy idiot,” Andrew pointed out in a withering tone as he leaned against the tree with his arms folded over his broad, well-defined chest, his hazel eyes hooded so Neil couldn’t tell where he was looking at the moment.

“Maybe I’m wrong and I don’t really understand them. Maybe I’ll miss it when they decide to eat an asshole necromancer,” Neil told him with a sharp smile as he kept moving the rocks.

Andrew was quiet for a few seconds. “The fox loves to show off his tiny little teeth and claws,” he droned on in a bland voice. “How cute.”

Exasperation sparked through Neil at the new nickname – it was better than ‘kitty’ and all those derivatives, so much better, especially when he didn’t sense any cruel intent from Andrew – yet it also made him think with some regret of Jean. “They’re big enough to get the job done,” Neil gritted out.

When Andrew arched an eyebrow at that comment, Neil realized what he’d just said, what it sounded like and grew flustered. “What… I mean… that’s not what I… not _that_!” Embarrassment made his face grow heated as he shook his head and leaned away from Andrew.

“Shit, I didn’t- let’s just- no.” Andrew jerked his right hand through his sweat-dampened blond hair and sighed. “Let’s just get this out of the way, all right? I didn’t mean to… well, I forgot about the bond last night. I didn’t mean to inflict that on you purposely, let alone accidentally.” He sounded and felt uncomfortable just then, and Neil didn’t think it was just from the topic. The little he knew about the man, Andrew didn’t seem to do ‘apologies’ at all.

Neil focused his attention on reaching the cache, on not looking at Andrew just then. “I figured that out when you stopped, okay? So just… just forget about it.” He managed a shaky smile as he resumed removing the rocks and Ombré pressed against him, her nose cold against his left arm, and Danseur even dug at the soft earth around the tree’s roots. “It just surprised me, that’s all.” Had been an unpleasant surprise, to feel _those_ emotions. Neil hadn’t much experience with them, had felt them only fleeting a time or two and- “Here,” he said with relief as he pulled away the last of the rocks.

Andrew moved to kneel beside him, which should be too close but once again, Neil didn’t find himself bothered by the man’s presence for some reason. All he did was shift over a little, which caused a faint rumble of complaint from Ombré, so Andrew could see the cache better. “There should be some clothes in here, a few weapons, some jewelry and some coins, stuff like that,” he explained as he pushed aside the dirt. “Danseur, I can do this,” he chided the young she-wolf. “Thanks, though.”

She gave one last dig with her paws before she got out of the way, and after shifting the dirt some more, Neil hit the stiff leather covering the hole carved into the space between the tree’s thick roots which he tucked aside, then started pulling out the various cloth bags.

He ignored the ones containing boots since almost none of them would fit, that and he preferred to go barefoot since he’d often be climbing trees or wading into water, which meant it was too much of a bother to take the footwear on and off. Andrew went through the bags and found a pair of black ankle boots he liked, which he set aside with a shrug at Neil’s amused smile.

Another bag contained various leggings and trousers, which Neil went through to find a few pairs which were small enough to fit him – again, Andrew kept a pair of black leather pants for himself, satisfaction flowing over their link while Neil rolled his eyes. He kept that bag so he could stuff several tunics, jerkins and shirts from another bag into it, all save for a pair of pants, a loose shirt and a hooded jerkin which he intended to change into once he washed off in the river.

“This stuff is how old?” Andrew asked as he eyed a black and silver suede jerkin which should fit his muscular upper body. “You don’t see craftsmanship like this that often, except at some of the more formal court events.”

Neil shrugged as he pulled out some of the smaller bags, the ones he usually ignored but might have a need of if he was going to be spending time in the Fae world. “It’s probably like Kevin said, that it’s been here for centuries.” It was obvious to Neil now that time worked differently in the Dark Road with the fact that he hadn’t really aged during his stay in it.

“So long as no one’s expecting to get it back.” Andrew’s emotions grew a bit possessive as he set the jerkin aside with the other items he’d ‘claimed’, then look over to see what else Neil had found. “What are those?”

“Stuff I didn’t usually bother with since I tried to have as little to do with any Fae or humans,” Neil admitted as he spread the contents onto the ground; on his left side, Ombré and Danseur suddenly sat up to eye the spill of gold, silver and jewels. “I figure I’ll take these back with us, though, since Wymack doesn’t seem to approve of me stealing things.” He’d need some money of his own since he didn’t want to rely upon the man for everything.

That earned a derisive snort from Andrew. “The old man and his morals, how inconsiderate of-“ He fell quiet as he stared at something in the pile of jewelry, gems and coins, his hazel eyes focused on a collar of silver and sapphires. No, wait, it was the one torc, Neil realized, a twisted band of glowing gold with the terminals ending in owls’ heads with bright beads of lapis lazuli held between their sharp beaks.

“It’s beautiful,” he breathed out, yet something kept him from picking it up, kept his right hand from moving; it was as if the gauntlet weighed down his arm all of a sudden.

Andrew breathed out in a slow manner as he reached for the piece of jewelry, yet right before his fingers touched it, he glanced over at Neil, his thick brows drawn close and his emotions jumbled together with want/confusion/uncertainty. Neil smiled at him and nodded while the wolves watched on without moving. “If you want it, take it. I don’t… it’s fine.” There was nothing that would make him take the torc even though it was obviously valuable and could be traded for quite a few spells and charms.

He’d barely spoken the words before Andrew snatched up the item as if worried that Neil would change his mind, and within seconds the torc was around his neck; it fit as if it had been made for him, hugged his neck perfectly and settled above his collarbones where it gleamed in the Dark Road’s odd light.

Something stirred inside of Neil upon seeing the torc around Andrew’s neck, made the gauntlet throb on his right wrist while Ombré whined low and soft, made something tighten inside of his chest as for a few frantic heartbeats his emotions became a bewildering, overwhelming jumble – as he suddenly didn’t know what _he_ felt and what _Andrew_ felt, they were so strong and strange.

Then everything returned to normal – whatever ‘normal’ was anymore – and Andrew rocked back on his heels while Ombré pawed at Neil’s left arm for attention. “Kevin’s never going to leave you alone when he sees this stuff,” the necromancer warned.

“ _Iron and ash_ ,” Neil muttered in old Fae as he rubbed Ombré’s ears. “Maybe I’ll give him something to keep him occupied.” For some reason, a heavyset ring of rose gold and emeralds came to mind, though it would be too small for the Tuatha de Danann to wear – that and it was in another cache.

Andrew just nodded in a non-committal manner while Neil returned the precious items to the bag and then checked the cache for weapons, of which there were some knives. He took two of them, one he could strap to his left thigh and one he could stash in the small of his back, while Andrew appropriated one of the smaller ones. Once they were finished, Neil tucked everything they didn’t need back then resealed the cache with Danseur ‘helping’ him with the dirt.

By that point, the pack had moved closer to the river, so Andrew placed his ‘new’ items in his bag so they could join the other shadow wolves, and after grabbing a change of clothes, he went with Neil down to river. He smoked another cigarette and watched on in mild curiosity while Neil hesitated for a moment before removing the sweaty shirt that he’d been given at the knowe so he could use it as an improvised net to catch some fish after setting the clean clothes on the soft sand of the river bank, then after glancing at Ombré and Nuit sitting nearby, removed the cotton pants as well so he’d have something to dry off with, leaving only the baggy ‘boxers’ he’d been given to wear beneath.

He could feel Andrew’s surprise at his undressed state before he stepped into the cold water of the river, followed by a simmering anger and hatred which Neil didn’t think was directed his way; Abby had told him that Andrew was there when she, Renee and Betsy had done their best to heal Neil after Aaron had made a comment about his brother preventing him from helping out. It was obvious that the healer had tried to put Andrew’s actions in a good light, to show how he was protective of the knowe and its inhabitants – especially his family, but all Neil had cared about was that Andrew had seen the wounds inflicted upon him by Riko and Riko’s knights, and probably guess what had been done to him at Evermore.

So it didn’t matter quite so much, Andrew getting another look at the damage Riko and his people had done to him, the finally healed raven pattern on his back and the red lines along his torso, the angry marks on his wrists and forearms. The older, silvery scars left by his father and Lola and DiMaccio and everyone else whom his father had sent after Neil and his mother. All that really mattered to Neil was that Andrew didn’t come any closer, didn’t take his lack of clothes as an invitation, an offer (no no _no_ ), didn’t look at him with hunger or possessiveness or cruelty.

“Are you trying to drown yourself? I don’t think this ‘river’ is deep enough. It’s barely more than a creek,” Andrew pointed out as he sat down to remove his boots.

“Ha, ha.” Neil frowned as he went still so he wouldn’t startle a nearby school of fish. “How about we try to drown you? You’re shorter, after all.”

“I’d like to see someone as scrawny as you try,” Andrew sneered; he set his boots aside but didn’t move after that, he just glanced at Neil which was fine now that Neil was mostly covered by water, emotions once more curious. That emotion spiked with amusement and surprise when Neil ducked beneath the water to scoop at the fish, then admiration when Neil waded to the shore with several of the hand-length fish ‘netted’ in his shirt.

“I’ll clean them afterwards,” he told Andrew as he set the tied shirt on the sand, then slicked back his hair out of his face. Once back in the cold water, he sat down so he could use the fine sand to scrub the sweat and dirt from his skin.

Andrew watched him for a minute before he removed the rest of his clothes; Neil watched out of a sense of precaution and waited for a rush of anticipation or desire or… or for anything bad, but there wasn’t anything like that, just a sense of mild exhaustion from Andrew, who seemed to focus his attention on the water in front of him.

As the black t-shirt was removed, Neil first noticed the defined chest and shoulders, the thick biceps which indicated that Andrew must put in some time practicing weapons as well as magic. Then his attention was snagged by the golden hair covering the broad pectorals and trailing down the toned abdomen, that dusted Andrew’s forearms when he removed the armbands – just how much human blood did the necromancer have in him? Why did Neil care? Why was he interested in-

“Staring,” Andrew called out in a bored tone of voice.

Suddenly flustered and uncertain of why that was so, Neil ducked his head and focused on cleaning himself, on scrubbing his skin with the sand. When Andrew finally entered the water and muttered a curse over how cold it was, Neil brushed off any remaining bits of grit and dunked himself once more to scrub at his scalp with his fingers before he returned to the bank of the river.

Checking that Andrew was busy at the moment, he dried himself and shed the wet boxers before pulling on the clean pants as quickly as possible, then the rest of the outfit. It felt so good to wear something Fae-made again, the natural fabrics soothing against his skin. Still, he took the boxers back to the river to beat clean then wrung them out, so he could put them back on once they were dry.

He gathered some of the fallen branches on the ground around the trees to start a fire and was cleaning the fish when Andrew finally joined him, hair wet and dressed in a different all-black outfit. “So you can eat something other than fruit,” was all he said as he sat down on the opposite side of the fire.

“I didn’t think anyone would want to bother with catching them for me,” Neil explained as he finished with the fish, mindful to bury the offal.

“Probably not, considering your friends over there and the Moriyamas interfering.” Andrew appeared thoughtful for a moment. “We probably haven’t seen anyone yet because they lost too many people at the knowe. Might be some time before they can send them back here to stand around doing nothing but wait for you to show up.”

“Especially if they think I can control the wolves,” Neil added.

“At least until they try something at the High Court.” Andrew pulled out a knife as he stared at Neil. “They’re going to argue there about you belonging to them.”

Somehow, that didn’t surprise Neil. “I never swore to them, and only my father agreed to give me to Tetsuji.” He shivered a little as he thought about going back to Evermore.

“Your father.” Andrew tapped the knife against the knuckles of his left hand. “Just how is it that your father, a Firstborn, answers to someone like Tetsuji? I never could understand that.”

Neil’s stomach twisted at the thought of his father, whom he’d probably see at the High Court, but he knew he’d have to eat the fish once they finished cooking so he continued to set them on the stones lining the fire. “Well then, it seems we’ve reached the story time of our little trip since it seems no one bothered to tell it to you before now,” he said in a sarcastic manner as he leaned back against Nuit, grateful once more for having the pack around him as he dealt with the painful history of his family.

*******

If all it took to get Neil to open up and talk was to take him back to the Dark Road, Andrew would have done it sooner. Though there was the fact that the shadow walker would have probably gone running away at the first opportunity with the damn mutts without the geas to bind him to Andrew, and that he looked like something out of a finely crafted tapestry sitting across from the fire with his hair slicked back from his face, the strands slowly drying in loose waves and unnatural eyes reflecting the flames, dressed in a fine linen white shirt left loose around his neck and a dark blue jerkin.

Clothes which hid a body covered with so many scars – too many scars. Andrew could still remember when they had been red and angry, had been freshly inflicted and barely healed, had been layered over older ones with deliberate intent. He didn’t understand how someone so badly mistreated for so long, someone driven to consider a fucked up world like this as ‘home’, could still laugh and smile like Neil did, but then again, he didn’t understand Neil, period.

Idiot indeed, but an idiot who finally was giving him some answers, including some about Nathan Wesninski – a man almost no one wanted to talk about whenever Andrew brought him up.

“And here I am without any popcorn,” Andrew drawled as he dug into his bag for some of the chocolate he’d brought with him; a couple of the mutts perked up their ears as he unwrapped a bar, then huffed in what was clearly disappointment when they got a sniff of it. Good, it wasn’t like he’d intended to share in the first place. “Will you do sound effects?”

Neil appeared puzzled by that before he sighed. “So my father is a child of Maeb, one of the last she bore. Folús Sidhe.” He grimaced a little as he sat with his knees drawn up to his chest and picked up a stick so he could poke at the fire; the shadow wolves shifted closer to him as if unwilling to allow much space between them. “To be honest, even I’m a little uncertain of all the details as people aren’t that happy to talk about him, my father. To the Fae he’s death personified and they’d probably hoped that he’d never pass on his magic, that he’d be the only Folús Sidhe.” A small, sad smile twisted Neil’s lips as he stared down at his left hand. “It’s probably why my mother had me hide the fact that I’d inherited it for as long as I could.”

Most likely, Andrew agreed, as he ate the chocolate bar despite the sadness and bitterness flowing into him. “Less wallowing, more explaining,” he said as he reached into his bag for another one.

That earned him a glare for his ‘callowness’, but anger was much preferred to upset. “What seems to not be known to many was that my father worked for Oberon,” Neil snapped. “He used his talent to remove those who were in the High King’s way, who offended him, who… oh, I don’t know, whomever Oberon wanted gone.” Neil shrugged as he threw the stick in the fire then checked one of the fish, only to hum a little.

Andrew stared at him in surprise at the revelation. “You’re exaggerating.” Yet even as he spoke, he knew that wasn’t true – somehow, he knew Neil wasn’t twisting things about for once, wasn’t being misleading or playing his usual trick. As he thought that, the torc pulsed once around his neck as if in agreement and a voice whispered ‘ _truth_ ’ in his mind, which almost made him drop the half-finished candy bar.

“No.” Busy waving the fish by the tail in the air as if to cool it down, Neil glared at him. “My mother told me that, and I overheard my father mention one of his assignments once, too. It’s how he ended up tied to Tetsuji, you see. He was on a mission for Oberon to kill a kitsune who… well, I don’t know.” The idiot shrugged as he peeled off the charred outer skin of the fish then stripped the meat with clever fingers to pop into his mouth before he continued. “Offended Oberon or Titania somehow, so my father did his thing. Except he must have gotten too arrogant or something, because that time there was a witness, someone he couldn’t touch, and a blood-debt was owed.” The right corner of his mouth quirked up as he grabbed another fish. “The kitsune he killed was Tetsuji’s wife.”

Interesting, Andrew thought as he pulled out a bottle of whiskey as he considered what he knew about Fae, especially old pureblood Fae. “So what, Oberon made some big, fancy ruling where he had your father swear to Tetsuji to make up for killing the man’s wife, just to cover his own ass?” Neil’s smile took on a sharper edge. “You purebloods are fucked up,” Andrew commented in an even tone.

Neil shrugged at that, unoffended in the least from what Andrew could tell. “From the little I can put together, Tetsuji was happier getting a weapon like my father in return for his wife, considering it was an arranged and barren marriage, though there were certain ‘limits’ set on my father.” His smile flattened as he forced himself to finish another fish, the brief flash of humor gone. “Between Oberon casting him aside like that and then leaving him behind, it’s made him a bit bitter.”

“It’s made him an abusive, homicidal bastard, from what I’ve heard and seen,” Andrew said without any hesitation. “No wonder you have so many issues.”

“You-“ Neil gawked at him for that statement, and then huffed a little, for a moment sounding like one of the damn mutts. “You’re right, dammit.” He grabbed the remaining fish, keeping one for himself before tossing the other two at the wolf curled up into his side – Ombré, Andrew thought. “Anyway, that’s the story behind my dad. Part of me wonders if maybe he’s trying to hand me over in an attempt to free himself or something.”

That did sound an awful lot like a Fae bargain, to offer up one’s own child for freedom one didn’t deserve. “You said your mom never told your father your true name? Is that common?”

Neil took to frowning again as emotions dark and complicated came over the bond. “I don’t… I know the old stories,” he told Andrew as he huddled into himself even more and hugged Ombré close; Andrew noticed how affectionate he was with the wolves, how he didn’t hesitate to touch them and let them slobber all over him when he flinched at any human (well, person) getting close, and felt a stab of pain which he ignored by having some more whiskey. Then Andrew recalled how Neil seemed to allow Andrew close and hated the bond that much more. “I know about Fae things because my mother taught me, because-“ Neil rubbed at his eyes while mumbling something in old Fae.

“Sometimes we needed something to distract us from the pain and exhaustion and the hunger,” he explained in a weary, faint voice as he stared at the fire with a mesmerized expression. “Telling them kept her going, and listening to them gave me something to focus on, especially when I had to repeat them back to her or-“ Neil shook his head as pain/regret/sorrow washed into Andrew, as Andrew was left wondering if Nathan wasn’t the only abusive parent the idiot had suffered. “I know the stories and the past, but I don’t really know what’s normal for Fae because all I know is Folús Sidhe, is the Butcher, which is death and pain, and Scáth Sidhe which is running, running until I can’t anymore, and shadows and half-truths.” He looked away from the flames, the pupils of his eyes little more than thin slits due to the brightness of the fire, and gave Andrew a brittle smile. “What does that make me?”

Andrew wanted to call him a liar, he really did, because sitting before him was something too impossible, too unreal to be believed, yet there was that faint voice whispering in his head ‘ _this is the truth_ ’ even though there weren’t any spirits around, was that light pulse around his neck. He wanted to… to…. Dammit, he wanted to be able to think straight and not be so full of anger at the thought of how badly Neil had been abused for so long, yet could still feel things so vividly and brightly.

So instead, he scoffed as he forced himself to set the bottle of alcohol aside and reached for a bag of cookies instead. “An idiot, obviously, and one who didn’t answer my question.”

That statement was greeted with silence for about half a minute, during which the only sound was the rustling of the bag as Andrew opened it, the crackling of the fire and the wolves shifting about, and then a low, virulent string of Fae was unleased as Neil glared at Andrew with glowing eyes while he stared back and munched on chocolate chocolate-chip cookies.

Was it worth learning old Fae just to know what the hell the idiot was spouting at him? Judging from Kevin’s reactions at times and what Neil had said about Riko, the idiot could be pretty inventive with the insults, so perhaps. Might give Andrew something to do in the upcoming years as well. Though Andrew had to admit it was soothing in an odd way to just sit there and let the tirade flow over him, considering the lyrical cant to the language.

He didn’t have a watch or a phone – and suspected that neither device would work in the grey, fucked up the world he was stuck in for another day or so – but had finished the cookies by the time Neil ran out of steam, a little short of breath and color to his sharp cheekbones. Mindful of the annoying as hell bond between them, Andrew distracted himself by lighting up a cigarette while the idiot finally appeared to calm down. “Your true name,” he repeated as he blew out some smoke.

“I’m not going to tell a bastard like _you_ what it is,” Neil muttered as he rubbed the one damn mutt’s ears. “And no, I don’t think it’s common, my mother keeping it from my father. But then again, he was an abusive asshole and she never told him hers.”

Now that was interesting. “I’m surprised he allowed that.” When Neil took to bending over Ombré and murmuring to her with a bit too much intent, Andrew’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, does someone have another story to tell?”

“Why am I doing all the talking?” Neil seemed to ask the mutt, who gave the tip of his pointed chin a lick. “Shouldn’t it be his turn now?”

Andrew picked up a small pebble to flick at the idiot. “Appease my curiosity for now and I’ll return the favor.”

A lock of hair now falling into his eyes, Neil snorted at that but sat up enough to lean against a huge shadow wolf. “Fine. There’s several different Fae bloodlines who are shadow walkers, who have the ability to use the shadows to travel.”

Yes, the Cait Sidhe were one of them, which was probably part of Seth’s problem with Neil; if the changeling had enough Cait Sidhe blood in him, he could do – mostly – what Neil did, but that bloodline was too thin for him to use the magic. Too thin for him to shape-shift as well and be of much use to anything, really. “Your point?”

Neil was quiet for a moment as he once more stared into the fire, as the sadness and regret returned. “My mother’s bloodline is Scáth Sidhe. Shadows and half-truths, I told you.” He gazed at Andrew with eyes almost entirely pale blue save for thin black lines down the center, yet somehow they were full of darkness. “We didn’t _lie_ to him, not exactly… but he _thought_ he knew our true names until that day we ran.”

They’d used magic, in other words, powerful magic that probably only worked because of their bloodline. Andrew thought of what Neil had told him, thought of how he’d evaded Wymack’s questions about the pixies so easily, how he’d frustrated Kevin and even thwarted Andrew a time or two during their daily question and answer sessions. Yet Andrew was certain that Neil was being perfectly honest with him now even if he was being oddly loquacious.

( _Truth_.)

“That must have made him very upset,” was all Andrew said, though.

Neil shivered in response as fear and pain poured into Andrew. “Yes.”

( _Truth_.) Okay, the voice was damn annoying and telling Andrew things he didn’t need or want confirmed.

There was another period of silence as Andrew had some more whiskey and Neil threw more kindling onto the fire. After what felt to be a couple of minutes, he set the bottle aside. “Your turn now.”

He could feel Neil's surprise at that, probably that he was going through with allowing the shadow walker his turn at asking Andrew some questions, followed by suspicion and then delight when Andrew just sat there waiting. "Uhm...." The idiot seemed to need to think on what he wanted to ask first. "You... just how much human blood do you have in you?"

That. Andrew sighed and debated having something more to drink, but settled on a bag of chips instead. "Why? Worried about being sullied by the presence of a changeling?" he asked as he searched through the rucksack.

"Eh?" If Neil's stunned expression wasn't enough to convince him, the emotions flowing over the bond did, the confusion and surprise. "No! It's just... well, there's you and Aaron, and Aaron seems...." Neil shrugged, which made the large shadow wolf behind him grumble a little at the movement. "He just seems more human than you, but you're twins from what the others say. That and you're much more powerful than him." As he spoke, Neil's eyes drifted down to Andrew's chest, only for him to glance away with a flash of embarrassment and confusion.

Ah yes, back at the river, Andrew thought with a little amusement; many of the older pureblood races of Fae were often lacking in body hair, he'd noticed over the years - not as androgynous like the old wives' tales made them out to be, since no one would mistake Neil as a woman despite his lean build and striking features. But Neil's smooth chest, arms and legs, the lack of stubble on his face were the basis of the myth, part of the inhuman beauty and perfection of the Sidhe (unless you liked a little stubble and five o’clock shadow, a bit of scruff to stroke and grab).

"What, find it disgusting?" he couldn't help but taunt, intrigued by Neil's reaction just then.

The confusion returned while Neil shook his head. "No!" Then once again he seemed to think about it. "Is it painful, removing it? Do you use a spell?" His fingers twitched against Ombré’s ears, which provoked a pleased rumble from the wolf. "Does it feel soft?" he asked as he once more stared at Andrew's chest.

The image of Neil's hands stroking along Andrew's chest made Andrew shove a handful of chips into his mouth and bite down hard before he gave himself away. When he felt that it was safe to speak again, he cleared his throat. "There's this thing called 'shaving', you idiot."

That made Neil frown and temper flare. "I've heard of it, I just can't believe that you haven't come up with something better than taking a sharp object to your skin, but fine." He sighed as he rolled his eyes. "So you're a changeling." At least he didn't say that word like it was an insult, like most of the Fae did, so Andrew let it slide - it was best to move on from the whole 'hair' topic after all, especially for the sake of his sanity.

( _Truth… and not truth_.)

"Yes, I am, and to answer your first question, I don't know, to be honest." When Neil's frown deepened, he shrugged and had some more chips while he told the voice to fuck off. "I don't know who my father is, just that he was Fae or had Fae blood in him, and that my mother was a changeling who could pass for human. That side of the family knew about their 'special' bloodline, knew about iron and a little about magic and potions, but they didn't tell Aaron or Nicky anything." At Neil's obvious confusion, he shook his head as he crumpled the now empty bag of chips. "For some reason my mother placed me up for adoption so I didn't grow up with them. I'm thinking it was because she knew I was more Fae than the rest of them. So I didn't find out about them until I was sixteen."

"Oh." Neil chewed on his full bottom lip for a few seconds while Andrew distracted himself by shoving the empty bags of food into the bottom of his sack. "You can always have someone ride your blood and find out what you are?"

"No," Andrew stated in a flat tone of voice.

"Okay." To give him credit, Neil didn't argue. "There's always a risk they might take too many liberties so you'd have to trust them. If you're content not knowing, at least you have your brother and your cousin." He turned pensive for a moment. "There are times when I wished I didn't know anything about my father, when I wished that I truly didn't have anything to do with Nathaniel Wesninski."

"Which is why you think it's a good idea to hide here and play with a bunch of mutts," Andrew said without any cruel intent. "Brilliant plan."

He was scowled at once again, then Neil's lips turned up into a slight smile. "It worked for a good while, didn't it?"

The idiot had a point, dammit.

"So what's between you and Kevin?" Neil asked when Andrew was quiet for almost a minute. "Why do you watch over him? You're sworn to Wymack, not him."

Andrew made himself more comfortable by using his bag as a pillow. "What did Riko tell you about me?"

Neil's brows drew together as he thought about the question. "Nothing, really, just that there was some uppity changeling who once defied him who got into trouble and he used his people in the SEC to alter the potion to drive the man mad. I didn't realize it was you until Renee warned you about the potion you were taking that night."

That was another truth, so Andrew snorted before he answered the new question. "I used to work at that club I took you to - Aaron and Nicky, too. One night Riko came there with Kevin and was his usual prick self, so I threw him out." Neil's eyes widened at that, probably at Andrew treating Riko that way. "Another night, some assholes decided to beat Nicky up and I took offense at that." He bared his teeth at Neil who merely nodded in understanding. "Seems I beat them up a little too much and the SEC decided I needed to be taught a lesson. Wymack stepped in and offered the three of us a place at his court and did his best to lessen my sentence, but I think we all know now why he didn't have much luck."

"Yes," Neil sighed as he wrapped his arms around Ombré’s neck.

"Anyway, jump ahead a few decades and Kevin sought sanctuary at the Foxhole Court as well, and made a deal with me. He'd help me with my magic since I'd learned how to use it on my own, and I'd stand between him and Riko." Though now that Andrew thought about it, technically the agreement wasn't needed anymore, since it was based on him proving to the SEC that he could control his magic and so no longer needed to take the damn potion any longer. Not that he'd break his word, especially since he refused to give Riko anything he wanted.

The prick was never getting his hands on Kevin or Neil.

Neil blinked at him from the other side of the fire, and Andrew realized that while the grey sky hadn’t darkened at all, that enough time had passed with them talking and everything that he was feeling a little sleepy. "There going to be any surprises during the night or whatever passes for that here?"

"Hmm?" Neil tilted his head to the side as he gazed at Andrew, who motioned around him with his right hand. "You mean because we’re off the path? Not really." He smiled as he settled a little lower amongst the wolves. "I've never come across anything that's bothered them, and for some reason people don't like straying from the road."

"I wonder why." Andrew gave a pointed look at the dark shapes which blended into the shadows cast by the fire, save for the eerie bright spots which were their eyes reflecting back the flames - Neil's did the same, but his skin was light enough to stand out, along with his auburn hair.

All Neil did was hum in agreement, amusement and a sense of contentment flowing over the link. "Tired?"

"Not really," which didn’t stretch the truth too much. He was comfortable since the ground was soft beneath him, warm from the fire and full, but not ready to fall asleep just yet. "So, we have the campfire, what about another story or two? Isn’t that the tradition?" Not that he was an expert about such things, but Neil had started it.

Neil flashed him a white, wide smile. "I suppose." He was quiet for a few seconds as his emotions turned contemplative, and then he began speaking, began telling Andrew stories about Maeb and Oberon, about some of the tricks that Titania had attempted to pull on Maeb and how the Unseelie queen had protected herself and her children. They were tales Andrew had never heard before, somewhat amusing at times but often dark and always containing an element of cruelty – they were very Fae, all in all, he thought as he grew sleepy during Neil’s current retelling of magic and malice. He also had to wonder what it was like to grow up with dark tales such as these as one’s bed-times stories.

Soon afterward, Neil stretched out on the ground with the wolves curled up around him, leaving Andrew to shake his head at the sight of the idiot almost engulfed by the black bodies. No wonder Neil never had anything to fear about the Dark Road….

Andrew didn’t know if it was due to his lack of sleep the night before, the running earlier or Neil’s happier emotions, but he didn’t have any bad dreams that ‘night’. There was a definite sense of security from the faint snuffles and snorts and rumbling breaths of all the shadow wolves sleeping, quiet noises in an otherwise rather silent world. All he knew was that despite being stuck in a nightmare world without his spirits to stand guard, he still slept with only the occasional brief moment of wakefulness here and there.

He came to when Neil’s grogginess washed through him, at first confused by the lack of brightness around him until he remembered where he was, that there wasn’t any proper sunlight in the Dark Road. Then he sat up in a rush when he realized that a couple of the mutts were stretched out within arm’s reach, just lying there as if it was natural. On the other side of a pile of ashes sat Neil as he rubbed at his face, his hair once more a tangled mess and shirt rumpled while the one mutt nudged his left shoulder.

He mumbled something in old Fae at it and gave it a gentle push before he sighed and dropped his hands into his lap. “Uhm, we need to hunt,” he told Andrew, his voice thick with sleepiness and eyes heavy-lidded.

“Good for you.” Andrew scratched at his scalp as he eyed the trees, which served as his bathroom for the time being; camping sucked. “Have fun.”

Neil gazed at him for a few more seconds before shrugging. “Okay then, we won’t go too far.”

It caught up to Andrew’s tired and caffeine-deprived brain that the idiot was about to go running again, and for a moment he almost protested against it. But Neil seemed pleased all of a sudden and had a slight smile on his face as he stood up, and for some reason Andrew was loathe to change things just then. Not when Neil had said he wouldn’t go too far.

Last night had been good, had been… Andrew wasn’t kidding himself in thinking that everything was all right between him and Neil, that they were friends. They still had to figure out the damn bond and he was certain that Neil’s good mood wouldn’t last once they returned to the Foxhole Court. But if they were going to be stuck together for a little while ( _lie_ , that strange voice told him), then they needed to start somewhere. There were the exchanged truths and now there could be a little bit of trust.

So he watched Neil go off with almost all of the mutts, save a couple which lounged around while he went to relieve his full bladder then wash his face and hands before returning to dig through his bag for a clean shirt, an energy drink and the box of pop-tarts.

He’d just finished his breakfast when he felt an aching feeling in his chest, a feeling that didn’t last for long before it began to ease. He took that to mean that Neil had noticed it too and was honoring his word to ‘not go too far’, and sure enough it wasn’t much longer after he’d begun to read a book he’d brought along when the idiot returned with the shadow wolves, his jerkin slung cross-wise over his chest and a few of the wolves carrying limp furry objects in their mouths.

A slight, tentative smile spread across Neil’s face when he caught sight of Andrew, and he faltered for a moment before coming over to stand near him. “Uhm, I’m going to wash these off,” he said as he showed Andrew the fruit inside of the jerkin. “I’ll be back.” His hair was even more tangled than before and there was a slight gleam of sweat on his face, but it was the smile that made something twist inside of Andrew.

“Try not to drown,” Andrew chided the idiot, which wiped away the smile as Neil glowered as well and went away muttering in old Fae. Not that Andrew watched him at all, the way the shirt shifted along narrow shoulders and-

And just how many weeks ago had Neil been locked up in Evermore, hmm? Had a bastard there looked at him much like Andrew did now – did more than look at him? That thought sobered Andrew and made his insides twist again, but with disgust that time, disgust and self-hatred… at least until a mutt smacked him in the face with a tail.

“The fuck?” He dropped his book in his haste to go for one of his knives, full of regret over leaving his staff at the knowe but certain that Neil wouldn’t have been pleased if he’d brought it, and frowned to find the shadow wolf standing in front of him with its sharp white teeth bared in what could only be considered a ‘smile’. “What?” Andrew snapped since it didn’t seem to be intent on attacking him.

It made one of the huffing sounds that they did from time to time as it sat down.

“Go the fuck away,” he told it as he picked up his book. “Bother Neil, he’s stupid enough to put up with you.”

Mention of the idiot made it – he thought it was Nuit – smile again, but it didn’t move. Andrew sighed as he found the page he’d been reading before he’d been interrupted. “I’m not an idiot shadow walker, go away.”

That prompted another huff as the mutt didn’t otherwise move, so Andrew decided to ignore it – at least until Neil returned after a few pages. “Call off your pet.”

“Eh?” Neil’s hair was damp as if he’d run wet fingers through it and he was wearing his jerkin as he held the fruit cradled in his arms. “Oh, I told you I don’t control them.” He didn’t sound annoyed, just tired as he set the fruit by the fire pit then went to gather some more sticks. At least the damn mutt jumped up to go running over to help, or something like that. It pawed at a few sticks until Neil murmured and picked them up.

When Neil sat back down by the fire and pulled out a charm to light the stacked sticks, another wolf brought over in its mouth something that sort of resembled a rabbit, its long legs dangling down in a grotesque manner. Neil sighed then smiled as he murmured something in French as he took the thing and then pulled free the knife strapped to his right thigh so he could start skinning it, humming all along as several of the smaller wolves clustered around him.

They made a quick meal out of the offal, and Neil cut the fur off in a couple of strips which they went running off with, clearly intending to play with each other in tumbling games of tug-of-war. Neil laughed at them as he carved away a bit more of the creature, which Ombré and another she-wolf were pleased to eat, then set his bloody knife aside so he could spit the rest of the meat and stake it near the fire before picking up the knife and going back down to the river, presumably to clean up.

Andrew watched on in silence, taking in how quickly and efficiently Neil had done everything, how his movements made it clear that he had perfected a life in this odd world. That he managed to fit in seamlessly with the shadow wolves, to have a sense of confidence that he didn’t have at the knowe.

The new voice was quiet for once, leaving Andrew to wonder if his thoughts weren’t quite the truth or lies. Perhaps it meant that Neil could find his place at the Foxhole Court if given a chance, but he felt an annoying pang of something resembling regret in his chest as he thought about how soon enough, he would have to pull the idiot away from this, would have to take him from the Dark Road and enmesh him into all the fucked up mess that came with the Fae world.

No one could claim that life was fair.

( _Truth._ )

He frowned and fingered the torc around his neck as Neil came back and took to playing with the shadow wolves, took to running around with them in another stupid game of ‘tag’. The torc Andrew had been driven to pick up and put on when he didn’t wear any other piece of jewelry, when he didn’t bother with anything let alone something so gaudy and old-fashioned let alone it being Fae-made. Yet it felt so warm and solid against his neck, it fit him as if it had been crafted for him and there was no impulse to remove it – if anything, his hand fell away at the mere thought of removing it.

That should be suspicious as fuck, yet despite everything that had happened to him, despite him knowing better than to trust anything Fae… he didn’t mistrust the torc. Not when it felt too _right_. Not when it felt as if it belonged to him.

Maybe the Dark Road was making him stupid, too.

His thoughts went about in circles as he watched Neil play with the mutts, which helped to keep his emotions in check at the sight of Neil’s flushed and smiling face, of that auburn hair whipping about in the wind (seriously, Abby or Renee or someone needed to give it a proper cut), of that lean body twisting and leaping about with graceful ease. They helped to distract him from the amusement/joy/affection that poured into him, the rare happy emotions from Neil which weren’t going to last much longer.

Soon enough the scent of roast meat filled the air so Neil stumbled back to the fire where he offered Andrew another tentative smile as he pulled the cooked critter from the flames. “Ah, I’d offer you some, but….”

“But I’m perfect as I am,” Andrew intoned in a flat voice as he set his neglected book aside to dig into his bag for more cookies.

Neil laughed a little at that. “If by ‘perfect’ you mean ‘a perfectly grumpy bastard’, then we can agree on that.” He winced a little as he used the tips of his fingers to tug the meat from the branch skewer.

“Says the idiot who doesn’t even like ice cream, clearly your tastes are awful and not to be trusted.”

Neil surprised Andrew by sticking out his tongue, then had a piece of meat. “Hmm.” He closed his eyes to savor the bite.

Andrew watched on while he munched on his cookies. “Is it that good?”

“Hmm, more like it’s really nice to eat something fresh which isn’t fruit,” Neil told him with a smile.

“Yeah, well, enjoy it while it lasts because we’re going back soon.” Andrew told himself that he didn’t care that Neil’s smile was wiped away by those words or the disappointment that was quick to flare over their bond. “I don’t want to be gone that long, not when Riko sent Jean to the club with a message for Kevin.” He watched Neil for a reaction to that, watched as Neil lowered the piece of meat he was holding in his left hand as upset/hatred/worry flowed into Andrew, then raised it again as if forcing himself to continue eating. As if he was used to forcing himself to push past the terrible emotions to make sure he had enough energy, which was an unpleasant thing to consider.

It was quiet while Neil had a few more bites, save for the wolves gathering closer to him. “I’m surprised that you allowed me to come here at all, if Riko did something like that,” was what he said, his voice neutral despite his emotions.

“I thought you could use the time here, and the knowe some time without you,” Andrew argued, then gritted his teeth when the voice mocked him that it wasn’t the entire truth.

“Still.” Neil shivered a little as he ate another piece of meat. “How was… how was Jean?” he finally asked with a slight hitch to his voice and the worry overriding the hate. “What did he tell Kevin?”

Of course the idiot was worried about Jean, why wasn't Andrew surprised? Still, there was a sense of disappointment over that fact, was something that made the cookies taste sour all of a sudden and Neil frown at Andrew from his spot across the fire. "Let's see, there was Riko being his usual asshole self and going on about how Kevin belonged at the place that had treated him like shit and bringing up his mother." Andrew paused to have a mouthful of cookies even though he didn't feel hungry anymore, either. "Have any idea why the Moriyamas are so interested in him?"

Neil was quiet for a moment while he finished some more of the meat then gave the remaining not-rabbit to the wolves while Ombré whined a little and curled up in his lap as if she wasn't at least half his size. That made him smile a little, even if the expression was tinged with sadness. "Well, it reminds everyone about what Tetsuji did with Kayleigh Day, about opening the knowes." Neil cocked his head to the side as he wrapped his arms around the mutt. "Which is a little suspicious, don't you think? Him wanting to keep such close watch over her son?"

Andrew thought about that for a moment then gave the 'idiot' a grudging nod. "A rather good point, little fox."

For some reason Neil grew flustered at the nickname. "You... whatever." There was a distinct hint of pink on his cheeks as he shook his head. "I've never seen anything to indicate that either Riko or Tetsuji possess the amount of magic that Kevin has, and everything I hear indicates that he takes after his mother. I've certainly seen Riko cast a lot of spells, both as a child and an adult," he paused to shiver a little as his emotions took on a dark edge, "but the few times Tetsuji tried when I-" Neil hugged Ombré close and shook his head again. "I don't think he's anywhere near as good as Kevin."

Which meant he wasn't anywhere near as good as Kayleigh Day had been, which was interesting to think about, especially with the woman long gone. Granted, it didn't always come down to strength with magic and spells, not when knowledge was just as important, but what if he'd had less to do with the 'great' discovery than people thought? Then having Kevin around to ensure that the truth didn't get out would be important, as well as having someone on hand powerful enough to protect his own knowe and court should another court risk challenging him.

Andrew bit into another cookie as he considered that and what it meant for Kevin. What it also meant for Neil, who would go a long way to shore up Tetsuji's little empire built on lies and intimidation. No rest for the wicked, he thought with an aggrieved sigh.

"Uhm, was that all Jean passed on?" Neil asked after about a minute of silence, his emotions once more all twisted up.

"Of course not," Andrew told him with a level look. "He had a message for you, which he passed on to Kevin." Neil tensed at that, which earned him an ear lick from Nuit. "It seems that Riko's ready to tattle to your Dad about you being naughty and running away if you don't go back." It wasn't a surprise to feel the rush of hate and fear at the mention of Nathan Wesninski, not when it had become a familiar sensation by then; Andrew looked forward to meeting the man whom so many people thought of as a monster - meeting and shoving his blades deep into the man's flesh for what he'd done to his own son.

"Yeah, what a surprise," Neil said, his voice faint as he rested his left cheek against Ombré’s sleek head. "That's been a long time coming."

"He also said something about how you behaving wouldn't cut you any slack," Andrew added - not exactly the same wording, but it got a reaction out of Neil all the same, made him close his eyes as revulsion, pain then resolution flowed out of him. "I see that means something to you."

"I'm not going back," Neil said, his voice hoarse and face set with stubbornness. "I'll do whatever I have to, take them down with me but I'm not going back there again," he swore while the shadow wolves around him gave a low, ominous growl as if in agreement.

Andrew had a feeling what Jean had warned Neil that he couldn't 'avoid' if he went back to Evermore and felt a sudden rush of rage. "What is he to you?" he demanded to know. "Why did you spare him? Why not let the damn wolves take him and Riko out when you had the chance?"

Neil flinched a little, but the anger continued to burn through their link. "You don't know," he started to say, "you don't-" the accusation faltered when Andrew held his gaze and sat there with his long-sleeved t-shirt covering his armbands and had his suspicions confirmed that Neil must have noticed how he almost never touched anyone, how he always kept his distance from everyone – just like Neil. "Jean... he's property to the Moriyamas, too," Neil continued in a quieter voice. "He survives... well, I've always had an attitude problem," he admitted with a twisted parody of a smile as he closed his eyes. "Jean tried to warn me, and when that failed, he put me back together every time."

( _Truth_ , the voice told Andrew, which made him hate it so, so much.)

It took several seconds before he could push the rage down enough to speak, and when he finally could, he directed the comment to the wolves. "Next time, go around the Frenchie for the prick, dammit. Show me how smart you can be."

Ombré gave a low rumble at that while Nuit did another 'smile'. Neil lifted his head and blinked, the expression slow and his emotions confused rather than pained. "What?"

"You couldn't have tried to spell things out a bit better the other day?" Andrew sneered.

"You do realize that killing Tetsuji's heir when he hadn't harmed the knowe could start a war?" Neil shot back in that annoying, too-sweet tone of his. "The knights can be overlooked, but not him, not right outside of Wymack's knowe, not with the only witnesses being us and Riko's people that he intended to destroy the Foxhole Court. He came close enough that a strong defense can be argued, but there's only so much the rest of the Fae will allow."

Andrew threw the last bit of cookie into his mouth as he considered that. "You have a decent grasp of Fae politics for someone who's been hiding away for how long."

"My mother taught me a few things," Neil explained as the tension in his body slowly relaxed. "I needed to know which court to play against the other and what to do if we ever ran into them, stuff like that. I'm sure some things have changed over the years, but on the whole, Fae stay the same."

An understatement if Andrew had ever heard one. While he was still curious about Jean, wanted to know just why the Leannan Sidhe had 'put Neil back together'... he decided to let the matter drop then, to not push. It was obvious that Neil was more forthcoming when he offered things on his own, so best to be patient even if it was frustrating as hell. "I told you that I worked at the club," he offered up to address the imbalance in 'truths' between them.

It was clear that Neil was surprised by that, and a hint of a true smile returned to his face. "Yes, you, your brother and cousin."

Mindful of the time, Andrew nodded as he leaned forward with his forearms on his knees. "We'd taken to living together at that point, and were just finding out what it meant to be Fae." To be _changelings_ , really, not quite Fae but not human, either. Willing to spend a little longer in the Dark Road, just another hour or two until Neil was put back at ease, Andrew recounted a couple of stories of them at the club, of Nicky's failures as a bartender and how the Fae quickly learned that just because Andrew was short and not a pureblood that it didn't mean that he was a pushover.

Neil sat there with the wolves around him and that slight smile on his face, evident interest and delight flowing into Andrew as he slowly at the fruit while he listened about the Fae who had tried to trick Andrew or get the best of him, who had learned the hard way to never underestimate a necromancer.

When Neil laughed at the story about how Andrew dealt with the insulting Daoine Sidhe with the ridiculous fur coat, Andrew reached the (surprisingly) unfortunate conclusion that they had to return back to the knowe. Neil’s smile faltered when Andrew gathered his bag to him and began to stand up. “It’s time, isn’t it?”

“We’ll be back,” Andrew promised while he lit a cigarette. “It was actually bearable, being away from Nicky’s non-stop chatter and Kevin whining about practice.”

Neil managed a weak smile at that. “And so I can feed myself for once.”

“That too.”

They went to the river to wash off and so Neil could have something to drink before he left as well as fill a couple of canteens which Andrew had brought along, and then it was back onto the black road cutting through the grey landscape. When Neil grinned at him with a rush of wicked amusement, Andrew bit down on a groan right before the idiot started running with the wolves.

For a moment, Andrew debated letting him go, but with his luck the idiot would run into several knights and Wymack would bitch if he got so much of a scratch on him.

Andrew swore the next time he went out into the mortal world, he was bringing back a pint of ice cream and making Neil eat all of it as payback for this shit.

(… _truth_?)

Damn right it was.

Of course the bag was heavier now with the stuff he’d grabbed from beneath the tree, but at least he knew that they wouldn’t be running forever. He was still grateful as fuck when Neil finally slowed down, even though nothing stood out to Andrew. “This it?” he asked while gasping for air.

“It’s just a little ahead, but there’s fruit trees here.” Neil removed his jerkin again while he nodded at the trees not far from the road, and while Andrew slumped forward with his hands rested on his knees, went off with several of the pack to pick some fruit. It was no wonder that he was so good at climbing the things, considering how quickly he scaled the trees to reach the branches bearing fruit, and soon enough was back on the road with enough fruit to last him a few days.

They walked the rest of the way in a companionable silence, until they reached a spot where Neil stopped to pet the mutts and mumble to them in old Fae while Nuit and Ombré nudged and sniffed the other wolves. Once that was done, Neil took a deep breath before he held out his right hand.

Andrew grasped it gently with his left and gave it a quick squeeze while he thought about the Foxhole Court, thought about Aaron and Kevin and Nicky, and a moment later darkness engulfed him before fading away to reveal the main garden at the knowe. He had to blink a couple of times to adjust to the brightness of mid-afternoon and felt whole again as his spirits rushed toward him, while Neil sighed as sadness and regret crossed over the link.

“It’s about damn time,” Wymack said from where he was sitting on one of the benches.

Andrew gazed at him for a couple of seconds before he let go of Neil’s hand. “Let’s go back.”

Neil smiled at that, some of his sadness fading as his hand dropped to rub at Nuit’s head and Wymack sputtered. “This was your idea.”

Wymack’s annoyed expression faded as he glanced back and forth between the two of them, then down to Nuit who was standing between Neil and Andrew. “Huh,” he said, his tone thoughtful before his jaw clenched and his expression hardened. “You’ve been gone for four days, do you know that?”

Damn Dark Road and its messed up sense of time. “So?” Andrew asked as he hiked the rucksack higher up his back. “Did Riko attack again? Kevin get any bright ideas to go off on his own and provoke a war? The pixies turn Gordon into a proper jackass and we can all take turns letting hitching him to a plow and getting some decent work out of him for once?” The spirits weren’t warning him about anything too bad, so he doubted that anything was wrong with his family or the coward.

“Like you’re one to talk, Minyard,” Wymack muttered as he scrubbed at the back of his head. “Talking about curses, I want to know what I’ve done to deserve you.”

“I’d say something monumentally stupid, but that seems to be your life history,” Andrew was kind enough to point out. “Just look at this knowe.”

“Hmm, yes, it’s difficult to argue with that, the little I know about you,” Neil agreed with a quick nod.

“Oberon’s balls, the two of you.” Wymack pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes and made an inarticulate sound of frustration for a couple of seconds while Neil frowned and glanced at Andrew in clear confusion, while Andrew merely shrugged. “Four fucking days to put together a comedy routine, apparently, while we’ve had visitors.”

Neil tensed at that while Andrew stilled and ordered the spirits to calm down. “What visitors?”

Wymack’s lips thinned into a grim line. “Some snotty-nosed messenger from the High Court, and… and an Unseelie from Baiting’s End who gives me the fucking creeps.”

Andrew frowned at the mention of what he assumed to be a knowe, one he’d never heard of before but one Neil clearly knew – and it wasn’t a good association. “Where the fuck is that, and who is this person?”

“Un… which one did he send?” Neil asked as his fingers sunk into Ombré’s and Nuit’s fur as if he could draw strength from the wolves, his voice quiet and emotions turbulent with fear and hatred. “Lola or Romero?”

“She said her name was Lola,” Wymack admitted, his broad face full of pity. “I only admitted her into the knowe because she came with the High Court’s emissary and made it clear that she’s not to touch you.”

A twisted, harsh laugh tumbled past Neil’s bloodless lips at that statement. “Oh, she won’t lay a finger on me, she won’t need to.” Andrew could feel the idiot attempt to slide between the shadows, to slip free, but he was caught by the geas and couldn’t escape. “It’s why he sent _her_.”

“Neil… dammit, I-“

Andrew cut off the man as he reached out with care to snag the jerkin-slash-impromptu-bag slung across Neil’s chest to keep the idiot from pulling away. “Who is she,” he demanded to know in a quiet voice. “Who sent her?” Though he already had an idea of that answer, of who owned Baiting’s End.

Neil laughed a little more before he stopped pulling away. “Lola Malcolm, sworn to my father.” He shuddered as he spoke that last word. “Half Leannan Sidhe, half Lamia, all venomous bitch as my mother always said.” His lips twisted into a mockery of a smile as he ran his fingers through his hair regardless of the numerous snarls and tangles. “She prefers to cut you with a knife, but any damage is good in her book so mental pain is always an option.”

“Oberon’s balls, kid, you knowing that… I’m going to snap her neck if she tries to harm you. If she tries to harm any of you kids,” Wymack warned as he rushed to his feet.

Oh no, the old man wouldn’t get the opportunity, not when Neil sounded too certain about that ‘cut you with a knife’ part. Not when he’d been telling the truth about how his father had sent his ‘people’ after him and his mother. Andrew was certain that if during another of their little truth exchanges he asked if any of those scars were from this ‘lovely’ Lola, Neil could give him a number.

She would never get another chance to add to them.

“Well then, let’s go see the venomous bitch,” Andrew said as he motioned for Wymack to lead the way while setting the rucksack down on one of the benches and gesturing for Neil to do the same with the fruit, bag of clothes and the canteens. Once Wymack was a few feet away, he reached out to tug on Neil’s right sleeve. “She won’t touch you.”

The idiot shook his head but didn’t pull his arm free. “My father sent her here for a reason, she’s one of his best people and she rarely fails him. She’s going to get blood one way or another.” He said that even with two shadow wolves at his side, with the damn voice in Andrew’s head agreeing with him.

“No, she isn’t,” Andrew swore, unwilling to let that happen for some damn reason. Perhaps because Neil had risked so much to pull Andrew back from the dead and so a debt was owed. Perhaps because Andrew couldn’t help but take on hopeless cases like Aaron and Kevin and even Nicky, and Neil was definitely _hopeless_. Perhaps he was just being stupid over unreal blue eyes and fleeting smiles and quicksilver emotions despite all those scars.

( _Truth._ )

He struggled to unclench his jaw so he could speak. “Swear to me to always tell the truth, to never lie to me by omission or any of that ‘shadow’ shit of yours, and I’ll protect you,” he swore. “Just like I do Kevin, I’ll stand between you and the Moriyamas, between you and your father.”

Neil looked at him as if he was insane. “But that… what’s in it for you?” Suspicion burned into Andrew, suspicion and a faint flare of hope. “What do you get for going against people so powerful?”

“I’m already protecting Kevin, it makes sense to watch over your idiot ass as well,” Andrew said. “It all hurts the Moriyamas in the end, and I refuse to allow them to get their hands on you, someone who’ll just make them all the more powerful.”

( _Truth… and not truth_.)

Andrew told the voice to fuck off while Neil bit into that full bottom lip of his, as the suspicion wavered into doubt while there was a brief sting of pain and then the hope won out. “All right,” Neil agreed in a rough voice. “I accept, but I won’t let you stand against them alone. I’ve always fought my own battles.”

Andrew snorted in derision as he gave Neil a gentle push in the direction where Wymack stood waiting for them with an inscrutable look on his face. “Make sure to stay out of my and the mutts’ way,” he warned the idiot, and snorted again when Nuit gave a coughing bark as if agreeing with him. Hmm, maybe the mutts weren’t too bad after all.

Neil took to muttering in old Fae as they left the garden, which wasn’t much of a surprise, while Ombré nudged at his left hand as if to cheer him up. As for Wymack, he was back to giving Andrew an assessing look, which made Andrew believe that the old man had heard some of the new deal he’d just struck with Neil. “What?” he asked as they entered the main hall.

“It’s about damn time,” was all the bastard said before shaking his head.

Andrew was prevented from asking what the hell that meant by Kevin nearly running into him in a panic. “Thank the Three that you’re back, I wasn’t sure that- wait, what is _that_?” Kevin came to a sudden halt as he gaped at Andrew – at the vicinity of Andrew’s neck, to be exact, while behind him Aaron sauntered down the hallway at a leisurely pace and Nicky waved in an excited manner. “Oh-Oberon’s blood did you get that in the Dark Road?” Kevin asked in a rush as his left hand reached for the torc – and was promptly batted aside with enough force to make him yelp in pain.

“You’re back!” Nicky exclaimed as he approached and gave a wide grin to both Andrew and Neil. “Love the new outfit, Neil, and oooh, that’s shiny!” He rocked up on his toes as if to get a better look at the torc over Kevin’s shoulder.

“Later,” Andrew told the morons as he nodded to Aaron, who merely nodded back yet his shoulders suddenly relaxed as if he’d been full of tension until moments before confirming that Andrew had returned. “Where’s our guests?”

“Dan and Renee are dealing with them in the common room. It’s a treat to watch,” Nicky informed him with a pained smile. “You know, if you like tension thick enough to cut with a knife and not so subtle insults being flung back and forth.”

"We're headed there, if the interruptions ever stop," Wymack griped as he motioned to Andrew and Kevin.

"But this is important," Kevin complained as he made another abortive grab at Andrew's neck, only to yelp again and clutch his hand to his chest. "Do you have any idea what that looks to-"

"Later," Andrew said as he reached to tug Neil closer by the sleeve of his shirt, which brought the mutts closer as well, which meant that Kevin and Nicky scurried away. He was surprised when Neil didn't try to put any space between them but chose to remain near Andrew while he fumbled in the pouch which hung around his waist for something.

"Here," he told Andrew in a quiet voice as he handed over a tiny bottle of something that glowed - it looked to contain some fine dust. "If you're determined to deal with Lola, you could probably use this."

Andrew arched an eyebrow as he accepted it and tucked it into his left armband since it was small enough to fit. "What will it do?"

A slight smile tugged at the corners of Neil's mouth while satisfaction and something dark flickered over the bond. "Something my mum taught me, but don't use it unless she makes the first move." When Andrew's eyes narrowed, Neil shook his head and gave a pointed look at the people walking ahead of them. "Later," he said, the words a clear promise in honor of their new agreement.

Now that sounded intriguing, and possibly unpleasant. "What did you intend it for, originally?"

Neil's lips twitched a little while he shrugged. "I like to keep my options open, but mainly for people who don't respect my boundaries."

"Including certain necromancers?"

All Neil did was hum a little, which was answer enough - especially since they'd reached the common room by then, and Neil's amusement was replaced by anxiety and something more guarded, as if he was waiting for the pain to begin.

Renee and Dan stood before two strangers, clearly on guard and displeased, which wasn't something unusual for Dan but Andrew was surprised and a little delighted to see the darkness lurking so close to the surface in Renee. It might not be evident for everyone, but he could tell it was there in the way that Renee stood ready to lash out with her feet and hands at any second, the faint hint of murky water and poppies in the air (and didn't that make sense now?), the watchfulness in her dark eyes.

"Where are the others?" Andrew asked as he stepped into the room, which drew the attention of the two strangers; a woman about Renee's height who possessed a curvaceous figure and long dark hair, light brown eyes and a cruel smile painted bright red on a face which might be considered pretty if there wasn't so much malice in her expression. The man standing beside her was unexceptional by Fae standards, was fine blond hair combed back from a too sharp face with watery blue eyes and a too thin, too tall body which indicated that he probably fought with words and decrees as his favored weapons.

"Patrolling the knowe to ensure that no one else pays us a visit," Wymack said as he strode forward to stand beside Dan, while the woman - Lola, gave out an exaggerated gasp.

"Oh my, Junior! The rumors don't do you any justice!" She giggled as she clapped her hands and went to approach them - approach Neil - but Andrew had the spirits rush to stop her while the shadow wolves took their place as a menacing, growling presence in front of the idiot. Her eyes narrowed when she was blocked, but the grin remained in place. "I see you traded up from Mommy-Dearest, bitch that she was."

"You're one to talk," Neil spat as he stood next to Andrew, body taut with the hatred that flowed over their link.

Lola clicked her tongue in mock disappointment. "Such a lack of manners, Junior," a fresh wave of hatred and pain washed through Neil at mention of the nickname, "what a shame. I remember when you used to be so sweet and biddable. Of course, that was when you looked so much like your father."

"It's a vast improvement, my new appearance."

"We can always do something about the ears," Lola said as her eyes narrowed. "Just take a-"

"Enough, Ms. Malcolm," the man said while eying the growling wolves. "That's not why we're here."

"Yes, I didn't allow you into my knowe so you could threaten my people." There was more than a hint of a warning in Wymack's deep voice just then, and he had to hold Dan back with a tight hand on her left arm.

"We had to ensure that you weren't hiding Nathaniel Wesninski." The Fae gave Neil a nervous look and flinched when Nuit bared his teeth. "Young man, you and Lord Wymack are to report to the High Court by the next full moon to discuss the matter of your... uhm-"

"The fact that Neil is now a member of the Foxhole Court," Renee said with a bright yet sharp smile. "It'll be nice to let the other courts know that fact and settle the matter once and for all."

"To let them know to back the fuck off," Wymack muttered.

"Oh we're all gonna die, I'm too young to die," Nicky whined as he wrapped his arms around his chest and rocked back and forth.

"Not if I kill you first," Aaron told the pest.

"That didn't even make sense," Nicky hissed back, while Andrew promised himself to throttle the two of them later.

The Fae - Andrew thought he was Tylwyth Teg - blinked in confusion at that while Lola eyed the shadow wolves with caution. "Uhm, yes, you'll present your cases to the High Court," the pretentious man continued. "Ah, please leave the pets at home."

"They're not pets," Neil told him with a pleased grin.

"I think he was referring to your new friend over there, Minyard," Lola all but cooed. "Really, Nathaniel, your father is going to have words with you, slumming with your lessers like that."

Andrew could feel Neil's indignation over the slur directed his way, could hear Nicky mutter 'what the fuck' and caught the way that Dan's back stiffened at the insult while Wymack's brows drew together and his jaw tightened. Before he could say anything, Neil's smile took on that too-bright edge which Andrew had grown to never trust. "I don't know, it's something I learned from him. I mean, he wallows in the mud all the time in dealing with Moriyamas, and I'm not even going there with how he allows filth like you to touch him, am I?"

"Young man," the Fae breathed out in shock, while Lola's face twisted in rage.

"You little bastard," she hissed, the words sibilant as the scent of musty musk overlaid with a sickly sweet scent which reminded Andrew of the potion Tilda had once made him drink. Appearing ready to cast a spell or curse at Neil, she jerked back when Nuit melted into the shadows to appear right in front of her with his teeth on full display. “They- they can’t be real!” she cried out as she slipped a knife free from the loose right sleeve of her red dress.

Neil murmured low to Nuit while the Tylwyth Teg Sidhe babbled something incomprehensible. “So Riko didn’t tell you everything, did he?” Wymack said with evident smugness. “Why do you think he went running to the High Court?”

The annoying Fae seemed to recover at the mention of the High Court, at least enough to send Wymack a narrow look. “We… you’ll be there at the full moon.” That should be about twenty days away, given Andrew’s messed up sense of time due to being on the Dark Road.

“We won’t miss it,” Andrew said as he shifted closer to Neil, who continued to give Lola a challenging look. “So fuck off, you delivered your message.”

“Andrew,” Kevin groaned as he glanced back and forth between Neil and Lola with evident unease.

Seeming to recover since Nuit had returned to Neil’s side, Lola managed a shaky smile. “You upgraded, Junior. Moved on from the weak bitch to some real guard dogs.”

Neil flinched at that, pain and sorrow lancing through him and Andrew as his hands clenched at the mutts’ napes. “Don’t,” he warned Lola. “Don’t speak of my mother that way.”

“Of the bitch? The woman who took you and-“

“Don’t,” Andrew warned, unwilling to put up with the woman’s attempt to hurt Neil any longer. “What are you here for?”

Lola flinched for some reason, her cruel smile slipping at the question as she shook her head. “No,” she denied. “You don’t need to know that.”

Andrew frowned at that, and felt a surge of power that was new, that urged him to ask the question again. “ _What are you here for_? _Why did you come_?” A strange magic filled him, a certainty that his questions would be answered… the same time that a warmth filled his throat. A warmth which emanated from the torc wrapped around his neck.

Lola made a strangling sound for a few seconds before she spoke, the words strained as if she fought to keep them from spilling forth. “Because Nathan sent me here. Because he wants Nathaniel back, he needs him back if he wants to be free.” Her brown eyes grew wild as the Tylwyth Teg stared at her in confusion and Renee stepped closer, her expression blank. “Because he suspects that Nathaniel is-“ she made a muffling sound as the words choked off, as blood sprayed from her red lips as her jaw tightened, probably from her clamping them shut at the expense of her tongue.

The words she’d already spoke had been damning enough, had confirmed what Neil had suspected, that Nathan Wesninski hoped to trade his son for his own freedom. Still, just what had the woman meant to say before she’d forced herself silent? And how had Andrew made her speak like that?

Before Andrew could figure things out, Lola made a growling noise and brandished the knife she’d unsheathed due to Nuit earlier as she lunged at Neil – either to attack him or to subdue him, Andrew didn’t know and didn’t care, all that mattered to him was that it was an outright attack on a sworn vassal of Wymack’s knowe – in a knowe she was a guest of, which meant that she violated the agreement where she was to be treated with respect as long as she followed the rules.

She wasn’t following the rules anymore.

Andrew slipped the vial Neil had given him earlier from his left armband to one of the spirits so they could both block the bitch from getting anywhere near Neil and then break it against her face, and watched on with mild interest as the glowing dust spread across her skin, as she breathed it in. For a moment nothing happened, save for Renee coming to a halt in such a sudden manner that it was almost comical while Dan and Wymack struggled to react in time, while Kevin bellowed out a warning and slipped his sword free, and then Lola let out a keening cry as she crumpled to the floor.

The dust seemed to sink into her skin and then her body contorted about, one moment she appeared as she’d shown them so far, the next a mix of a half-woman, half-snakelike form as she writhed on the floor in evident agony. Renee merely blinked at her and cocked her head to the side while everyone but she, Neil and Andrew withdrew in horror.

“Pixie dust?” Renee asked in evident interest.

“Yes, that’s the base of the spell,” the idiot told her.

“Spell for what?” Dan asked as she shuddered in disgust.

“It… well, pixies are good at twisting one’s reality, in bewitching people.” Neil shrugged as he looked away from the Sidhe continued twisting about in torment on the floor. “The spell amplifies that with a few twists.”

Dan stared at him as if only seeing him for the first time, while Renee nodded in approval and Andrew wondered what it would cost him to get more of the dust – more frequent visits to the Dark Road, maybe? Something like that would be handy indeed, and Neil seemed on very good terms with the flying pests.

Kevin gave him a disapproving look while the High Court’s emissary gagged. “That’s-“

“That’s the magic my mother taught me,” Neil said, cutting off any remark that Kevin might make. “I’m Unseelie, it’s my nature,” he argued with narrowed eyes and severe words.

Kevin stared back for a few seconds before letting out a slow breath. “Yes, it is.” He gave a pointed look at Neil’s right arm, at the gauntlet on it, before flickering to Andrew’s neck. “Yes,” he said with heavy significance while the wolves pressed against Neil’s legs and Lola gagged for breath, a red foam forming on her lips.

“This… this isn’t how-“ the Tylwyth Teg seemed to struggle for breath as he reached for Lola’s left arm. “We-“

“One of you attempted to attack one of my own,” Wymack said in a heavy tone of voice. “So you leave now while you have a chance, and we’ll be there on the full moon. We’ll be there in front of the High Court, and we expect there to be an honest and true court waiting for us.”

The Fae sputtered something before he nodded, and then he tugged a keening Lola closer to him before he triggered some sort of spell that took him from the knowe. Things were quiet in the common room for a few seconds until Nuit made a coughing sound which made Neil laugh a little and hug the mutt around the neck while murmuring something encouraging.

“Oh my god, we’re still alive,” Nicky said while slumping against Aaron, who shoved him away a second later. “Who was that bitch? Really? She was scary as fuck.”

Neil stirred a little at that as he leaned down to hug Ombré. “She’s one of my father’s people.”

Kevin twitched at that while Dan glared. “Your father’s people are assholes,” Dan spat as she seemed to recover her balance.

Neil actually smiled at that. “Yes,” was all he said as he straightened up. “We can agree on that.”

Andrew caught on to Neil’s sleeve yet again to pull him from the room, and noticed how the mutts meekly fell in step as Neil stumbled forward. “Now that the latest drama has been settled, the idiot and I need to talk.” Needed to talk about how Neil had been right about his father being willing to trade him like a piece of meat – only because of how that would need to be guarded against in the future – and what terms would be needed for Andrew to get his hands on more of that dust. Which was why he ignored how Neil’s emotions spiked for a moment, until Neil seemed to catch his own, catch how Andrew wasn’t more than curious at the moment which seemed to settle him down and allow Andrew to tug him along without any resistance and the mutts to walk between them.

“But we need to talk about the torc,” Kevin called out. “Do you have any idea what it-“

“It’s a bit of metal,” Andrew said, which was a truth, something he didn’t need that damn voice in his head to echo just then. It was a precious metal twisted around his neck… and something more. Something he wasn’t ready to acknowledge just then as his fingers brushed against the cool metal encased around Neil’s right forearm.

He didn’t want to think about how things seemed to be pushing him toward Neil, to how natural it felt to deal with Neil, to be so close to him. How he didn’t want to be apart from Neil, the more he knew about the idiot.

How Neil seemed to be pushing against suspicion and fear to accept Andrew, to slowly reach out to him. To build some sort of bridge between them. How-

“It’s more than that, it’s-“

“Leave it alone.” Neil’s voice was uncharacteristically harsh as he cut across Kevin’s, as he leaned close to Andrew to glare at Kevin. “Why do you have to ask so many questions?”

Kevin glowered at that rebuke, while Renee approached Neil and Andrew. “Because it’s important to know-“

“Hello!” Renee smiled as she waved at Neil and Andrew as she cut off Kevin. “Did you have fun on your break? How was the Dark Road?” Behind her, Wymack took to muttering while Dan shook her head.

“Uhm….”

Andrew ignored Neil as he sighed. “It was very grey and quiet and the water was freezing, but it wasn’t too bad. There was only one idiot around so that made it bearable.” He ignored both Neil glaring at him and the voice in his head going ‘ _lie_ ’ while Renee’s smile widened.

“Well, I’m happy to hear that you had a nice time. Feel like a proper soak, then?”

Andrew scoffed as he once more grabbed onto Neil’s sleeve. “Hell yes.” Hot water was a true sign of civilization in his mind, right up there with caffeine, nicotine and alcohol.

“Wait, why am I being dragged along?” Neil complained.

“Time for your flea dip, little fox.”

That prompted an inelegant squawk from the idiot, but Andrew was the stronger of the two so he won out. What surprised him was how Ombré and Nuit allowed him to drag Neil along the hall and out to the gardens to where the hot spring pools were, to where Renee stood with a knowing smile on her face after she fetched some towels and robes for him and Neil then left to give them some privacy.

“You can take the pool on the left,” Andrew told the idiot, knowing that Neil needed some space and more than willing to give it to him. More than willing to put that space between them.

Neil gave him a suspicious look for a few seconds then eyed the pools and the stacks of towels for a moment; he finally relaxed when he seemed to realize that Andrew didn’t- when he realized that Andrew really wasn’t like the others. That Andrew wouldn’t take advantage of him no matter what, wouldn’t push or – that Neil wouldn’t need those damn mutts to keep him safe, now that Andrew had his spirits around him and the rest of the knowe to back him up. “Okay.” Relief and happiness and something like trust flowed over their link.

Andrew kept his back turned as he removed his clothes then scrubbed clean, as Neil did the same, and let out a relieved sigh as he sank into the hot water. A few seconds later he felt Neil’s pleasure as the idiot slipped into his own pool, and the two of them were quiet as they could finally relax, as they let the heat from the mineral heavy water soak into their weary bodies.

They would have to face the High Court, would have to face the Moriyamas and most likely Nathan Wesninski as well… but at the moment Andrew could only feel relief and exhaustion and a faint sense of contentment. They had faced down Lola Malcolm and had an idea of what her ‘lord’ would throw at them, knew of the pain that had engraved itself into Neil’s body. Knew that they wouldn’t bow down to it, that Neil refused to give in to his father and that Andrew wouldn’t allow the bastard to have any power over the shadow walker from now on.

There were still a lot of unanswered questions – what the hell did the gauntlet and the torc signify? What about that new, irritating voice in Andrew’s head? Why did the ‘Butcher’ want Neil back, other than as a means to break him from the Moriyamas? What about the shadow wolves? But at the moment, all that mattered was that the two of them were able to rest while near each other beneath the clear sky of the Fae world with contentment singing through their weary bodies.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> Hmm, it's starting to come together, yes it is. Figuring things out yet?
> 
> Oh, how Andrew's being put through the wringer, the poor boy.
> 
> And not to knock Wymack (talk about being put through the wringer, the poor man, with what he deals with each day) - those lines from Andrew and especially Neil when they return from the Dark Road, but Wymack really is considered... well, 'eccentric' is putting it nicely, by the rest of the Fae. I mean, he takes on other's debts and does what he can to help others for no benefit of his own (other than he's utterly amazing) - it's JUST NOT FAE at all.
> 
> Hmm, think that's it.
> 
> Working on a fic for the Exy of Death zine (excited about it) so might be two weeks before the next chapter is up. But will try to get a prompt fic or something done so there will be SOMETHING before then.
> 
> As always, the comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> *******


	8. Definition of Not Leaving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, so this is a little shorter than usual (only like 14k words, wtf?) but it hit a good ending point. Also, you have some answers here (I think a couple of you have figured it out) as to what's going on. As I keep saying, things are finally coming together.
> 
> And again, there's references to some past events, past traumas, but just very vague and nothing new.  
> *******

*******

Neil woke to sound of Nuit growling and pixies chattering about intruders, his hands scrambling for the knife he kept beneath the soft pillow Abby had given him when she realized that he barely slept in the set of rooms assigned to him and legs twisted in the thin quilt. As he became more aware, more awake, he picked up on a sense of unhappiness and exhaustion as well as a disgruntled voice – Kevin’s voice.

“Call them off, Neil! Call them – dammit, we’re not going in there! Andrew, do something about these things.”

“No.”

Neil sighed as he sat up and strapped the knife around his left thigh, then rubbed at his eyes while Ombré leaned against him. “Nuit, it’s fine,” he told the one wolf as he made out the two shapes standing outside the veil of willow branches. “ _Please leave them alone_ ,” he then asked the pixies.

“ _Rude tall one_ ,” Arrant hissed, which Neil couldn’t really argue so he smiled and shrugged.

“ _I’ll get him and the other one out of the gardens_ ,” he offered, having a feeling that he knew what Kevin wanted.

Arrant sniffed at that and flew off in a fine spray of dust and a flurry of violet wings, so Neil combed his fingers through his hair then reached for the nearest jerkin to pull on over his light green tunic along with the belt containing his pouch before he stood up. Once ready, he parted the willow branches with Ombré at his side to find an exhausted looking Andrew and a determined Kevin waiting for him. “What?”

“This one,” Andrew spared a displeased look at Kevin, “has a death wish.”

“You were up anyway,” Kevin said without concern. “Now come on, we need to talk.” He gave both of them a significant look. “It’s about what you found in the Dark Road.”

Neil almost said ‘no’, but he remembered Kevin from when they’d been children, remembered how stubborn the Tuatha de Danann had been when he wanted to learn a new spell or sword maneuver. Added to that was how dogged an adult Kevin was over anything to do with the Dark Road or the gauntlet or, well, anything he wanted to know. Neil was surprised that he’d been able to make Kevin back off of Andrew long enough last night for them to enjoy a leisurely soak and then to sit out in the garden in peace as the late afternoon had turned to evening and Andrew had eventually gone inside, and it seemed that Andrew had avoided his friend for the rest of the night.

As for Neil, he had spent the time talking to the pixies and a little with Renee, until he felt tired enough to sleep – only for it to be broken by dreams of his father hunting him down and dragging him back to Evermore, to that cell where he was once more chained in irons and Aleskander and Phillipe and-

He scrubbed at his face as Nuit pawed at his bare feet until he forced a smile for the wolf. “ _I’m fine_ ,” he murmured in old Fae. Then he sighed and looked back at Kevin. “Let’s go.”

Kevin appeared surprised by that, while Andrew sighed as well while weary resignation flowed over their bond. “All… all right!” A broad smile spread across Kevin’s face, one of the first that Neil could remember seeing in… well, that he could remember seeing. “I’ve some refreshments waiting for us in Betsy’s lab,” he told Andrew.

“Then you get to live a little longer,” the necromancer muttered as he reached for Neil’s sleeve to pull him along. “Now move.” The spirits which were almost always with Andrew surged forward to give Kevin a shove, and when the tall Fae looked over his shoulder to glare at Andrew, he was met with a flat look which made Kevin’s lips press together on whatever it was that he’d been about to say.

Stomping off ahead of them, Kevin headed to Betsy’s lab first, which left Andrew with Neil and the shadow wolves. “Do you doubt me?”

“Huh?” Neil was a bit too tired to figure out what Andrew meant just then – not that he understood the necromancer at the best of times. “Doubt you how?” Doubt that Andrew had power? No. That he’d do whatever he wanted? No.

Andrew stared at him as if he was an idiot, which was nothing new, and clicked his tongue. “Do you doubt that I’ll keep my word and protect you?” He kept hold of Neil’s sleeve while he motioned with his right hand at Nuit and Ombré. “Like these mutts of yours?” Ombré coughed at the ‘mutt’ reference while Nuit gave one of his sharp-tooth ‘smiles’.

What had brought that on? “No.” Surprisingly enough, Neil didn’t, not after seeing how Andrew watched over Kevin, after having dealt with Andrew’s rather brutal sense of suspicion and knowing how far the necromancer would go to protect his family, friends and knowe.

“Then stop worrying so much about your father and the Moriyamas,” Andrew told him as the weariness increased, along with annoyance. When Neil gazed back in confusion and surprise, Andrew let go of Neil’s sleeve to give a – for him – gentle flick to Neil’s forehead. “You kept me up half the night.”

“What?” Then Neil remembered his nightmares and realized that somehow, they must have filtered over the bond – perhaps his emotions or maybe some facet of his dreams. “I’m sor- dammit!” He glared at Andrew as he was flicked again, only not so ‘gently’ that time.

“You know now.” Andrew looked ahead as he shrugged. “Sure I’ve done it a time or two to you and we never realized it, but now we know so calm the fuck down.”

That was easier said than done, but perhaps Neil could ask Abby for something to help him sleep better, to put him at ease; normally he wouldn’t take a potion like that, but he had the shadow wolves to look after him, even the pixies when he slept out in the garden… and yes, he had Andrew. As much as he’d never wanted to belong to a knowe, to stay in the Fae world, the Foxhole Court… well, it wasn’t bad.

As if picking up on his thoughts, Andrew gazed at him out of the corner of his hazel eyes while he lit a cigarette. “You’re not running any more, little fox,” he said after he blew out some smoke. “So settle the fuck down.”

They reached the main house before Neil responded. “Are you naturally this much of an asshole or do you practice to reach this level of annoyance?” By way of an answer, Andrew blew smoke in his face before dropping the filter of the cigarette to the ground.

“ _Why haven’t you eaten him yet_?” Neil asked the wolves in old Fae, only for Nuit to huff at him. Still, for all of the annoyance and anger and… for everything Andrew made him feel, he could hold the thought of seeing his father again at the full moon, of dealing with the Moriyamas, without the fear becoming overwhelming.

He wouldn’t be facing them alone, would have the shadow wolves at his side and a powerful necromancer before him.

Kevin stood waiting for them by the door to Betsy’s lab, and some of Neil’s good mood faded as he thought about the Leannan Sidhe; she was quiet and thoughtful and seemed to stare at him a little too long, a little too deeply as if he was a puzzle to be solved, as if she could see inside of him.

He didn’t like that, didn’t like anyone prying into his secrets, his past or his pain. Too much of it was already written on his skin for him to want any more to be so easily revealed – not when half of his lineage was about shadows and twisting truth and lies until they were indistinguishable from each other.

That morning Betsy appeared a little tired as well but much pleased as she smiled at them. “I’ll have to consult the omens for a day when both Kevin and Andrew are up so early without there being bloodshed and mayhem at the start of it.”

“ _Yet_ ,” Andrew stressed as he looked about the large, orderly work room. “Coffee?”

Betsy gestured to a large table behind here. “Per Kevin’s request, there’s plenty of refreshments.” She smiled at Neil as Andrew stalked toward the table. “I hope you don’t mind, but I fetched some of your water to make a pot of tea.”

Neil fidgeted with sleeves of his tunic as he gave a slight nod. “Ah, yes, that’s fine.” The tea would be welcome after so little sleep, and as he edged around the Leannan Sidhe, he noticed that there was some fruit as well for him.

He made sure to sit with Andrew between him and Kevin, the shadow wolves curled up at his feet since Andrew didn’t appear bothered by them anymore, and poured himself a cup of fragrant black tea before he ate one of the fruit. Kevin and Andrew availed themselves on the coffee, Andrew on a couple of pastries while Kevin scowled at him and ate what looked to be a bowl of porridge.

“How can you eat so much useless food? You need a proper diet to be able to fight at your best as well as to be able to concentrate properly to cast spells,” Kevin complained as Andrew bit into yet another flaky pastry.

Having seen some of the very odd things that the necromancer had eaten, Neil had to agree, but remained quiet since he didn’t want to be yelled at yet again for eating the food from the Dark Road.

Andrew made a show of licking crumbs from his fingers while he gazed evenly back at Kevin. “I manage just fine.”

“But you’d do so much better if you ate real food,” Kevin ground out. “You’re ruining your body.”

“It appears all right to me,” Neil commented as he picked up another piece of fruit, mindful of Andrew’s broad shoulders and impressive muscles. “Very strong and… uhm, what?” He frowned when the two men took to staring at him and an odd emotion came over the bond. “I’m just commenting on what I saw when you bathed.”

“I don’t need an idiot to help me win any battles,” Andrew told him while Kevin pressed his scarred left hand over his face.

“Fine.” Neil’s brows drew together over their reaction before he shrugged. “Is this about-“

“The _torc_ ,” Kevin said in a rush as he dropped his hand from his face. “We’re here about the torc, not about the two of you bathing together.” Then he yelped as something – a spirit, from what Neil could sense – smacked him in the back of the head. “Dammit, Andrew!”

“It wasn’t like that,” Andrew told him in a quiet yet heavy voice.

“I’m not asking, now let’s talk about the _torc_ ,” Kevin repeated while Neil picked up another fruit to eat. “The torc and the gauntlet,” he added while he gave Neil a pointed look, which Neil ignored in favor of licking his fingers. “I spent the evening doing some research with Betsy’s help while the two of you- well, I was busy.” There was a hint of red on his cheeks for some reason, while Andrew’s emotions were once again an odd mix which Neil chose to ignore.

“And? Have fun?” Andrew asked as he refilled his mug with what smelled to be strong coffee.

Kevin got over whatever was embarrassing him as he dragged a thick book closer and opened a page to an image that was partially familiar to Neil, to a finely drawn picture of Maeb with her ‘shadow-touched’ skin (as the more poetically inclined of the Fae called it, ‘muddy’ as some of the Seelie or those close to Titania had remarked), a fall of thick red curls all the way to her hips with sharply pointed ears clearly seen on either side of her head and wide blue eyes in a lovely face which would never be mistaken for human. What drew Neil’s attention were the graceful black shapes drawn around her in the mostly grey picture where she stood out as the brightest element, were the creatures he instantly recognized as shadow wolves.

“Do you see it?” Kevin asked as he stared at Neil with the focus he’d always reserved for sword practice or learning a new spell.

“Yeah, the shadow wolves,” Neil said as he reached down to rub Ombré’s ears, which provoked a pleased rumble from her.

There was a mumbled ‘idiot’ from Andrew while Kevin shook his head. “Well, yes, but there’s more than that.” He went to tap his finger against the page but stopped just short of touching the paper. “She’s wearing the gauntlet, the same one _you’re_ wearing, the one that Oberon gave her as a present. The one that prevents almost all spells from harming her.”

Neil looked closer at the page and could see that the dark lavender gown she wore left her long and lean arms bear, which exposed the engraved silver bracelet on her right wrist. A bracelet which did appear similar to the one he was currently wearing beneath the soft tunic since whomever the artist had been who had crafted Kevin’s book, they’d been extremely talented. “You’ve been saying all along it’s her gauntlet.”

“It’s more than that,” Kevin huffed. “You look just like her!” Neil frowned at that, but even Andrew nodded in agreement. “You have the gauntlet and the shadow wolves!”

“So?” Neil shook his head as he once more rubbed Ombré’s ears. “I’m her grandson, her great-grandson, and my father,” he grimaced at mentioning Nathan, “looks a lot like her, too.”

“Not the ears and the eyes, he doesn’t,” Kevin argued. “Not the ability to walk the shadows, to live on the Dark Road. To have the shadow wolves listen to you.”

And people thought Neil was stubborn? Kevin just wouldn’t let this go, would he? “So what? What are you trying to say?”

“Yes, just what are you trying to say?” Andrew asked in that quiet voice of his again, his emotions sharp and a little disturbing as he stared at Kevin with his hands resting on his opposite forearms.

Kevin shook his head as he held up his hands. “I’m just – hear me out, okay? The Three left without any announcement or decrees or anything, they just took… well, no one can really figure out why they took with them who they did, why certain Fae were left behind in the end. Some say they took the best, but that can be argued to not be true. Some say they took those they trusted, but again….” He shrugged as he picked up his mug of coffee once it seemed that Andrew had calmed down a little. “But all we know for certain is that they left those who remained behind in chaos due to the knowes closing and no clear chain of command.” His face twisted in anger for a moment before he sipped the coffee then set the mug aside.

“But what if they had left heirs behind, just not immediately?” He pointed at the open page of the book again, at the gauntlet and then at Neil, while Neil felt a trill of fear as he guessed where things were going. “If that’s why Maeb left her gauntlet so it would be a way to identify her heir?”

“No,” Neil said in a rush. “I’m _not_ her heir.”

Kevin gave him a pitying look before shaking his head. “You’re of her blood, you’re pure Unseelie, you’re a shadow walker – you’re Scáth Sidhe. You’re… the Dark Road’s claimed you, Neil. The Dark Road and the shadow wolves, and you’re wearing her gauntlet. Oberon’s blood, you can’t even take it off. I don’t think you can deny this.”

“No,” Neil repeated, but he sensed pity as well from Andrew, pity and recognition and acceptance and… something he didn’t quite understand. Yet it wasn’t fear or jealousy or anything that made Andrew look at him with scorn or hunger or- he could meet Andrew’s hazel eyes and not see or feel anything that made him want to lash out with his magic or flee the room, the knowe so he took a deep breath as he reached down to hug Ombré to him, hug Ombré close as Nuit pressed against his other side.

“Great,” Andrew muttered as he picked up another pastry. “My life just got that much harder.”

“Wait, I’m not done yet,” Kevin said as he flipped the page. “Now for you.”

The next page was a burst of color compared to the previous one, was bright with gold ink and black and bold lines, with Oberon and his imperious face staring straight ahead as if he could see Neil – could see Neil and found him lacking, judging from the disdainful look in his dark gold eyes. The High King was (had?) been a striking, handsome Fae with his pale skin and golden hair combed back from his strong features, those thick brows, piercing eyes and full lips. He was dressed in black clothes which off-set his pale coloring and the bright shades which the artist had decorated the page… and made the torc around his neck, the twisted gold metal with the owls’ head finials which held the Lapis Lazuli beads stand out as well.

Andrew stilled as he gazed down at the image, his emotions that of shock and denial while Kevin stared at the jewelry around his neck. “Oberon the High King,” the Tuatha de Danann said in a hushed, reverent tone. “First and foremost of the Fae. Those who lay claim to his bloodline… well, some say they’re mad, that they’re fools, but they’re respected none the less because they’re powerful, they’re… they’re the _champions_ ,” Kevin tried to explain. “They protect the Fairie realm, they protect the Fae despite all costs, protect the Unseelie and the Seelie. They _protect_ and defend, and the Fae goes on because of them – though it’s foolish to think that they do so mindlessly.  You play games with a champion at your own risk, as they are Oberon’s own.”

Andrew looked up from the book to scoff at Kevin. “I think _you’re_ the mad one here,” Andrew told him. “I’m a changeling of mixed blood, I just so happened to pick up something nice one day and-“ He frowned as he raised his right hand to his neck then stopped, as displeasure and surprise filled Neil as it seemed he attempted to remove the torc but couldn’t.

Kevin gave him a lopsided smile and pushed the book closer. “You’re one of the most powerful Fae I’ve ever encountered, and I think there’s a reason for your bloodline, for you not to obviously be Seelie or Unseelie – no Court has a clear claim on you. And there’s the torc, a torc I’ve seen you use to make people tell their secrets to you.” His gaze sharpened as his jaw clenched. “That’s what happened yesterday, right? With that woman. You ordered her to tell you why she was here and she started confessing. That’s a power of the torc – of _Oberon’s_ torc. He always knew when people told him the truth or tried to get away with a half-lie, and could force them to reveal their secrets.”

Neil felt a rush of fear at that, at the thought that Andrew had forced him to reveal things after putting on the torc – Neil thought that he’d shared his past out of a willingness to build trust between them, to work out some sort of middle ground and not that he’d been bespelled by a damn piece of jewelry.

Before he could rise out of the chair to run away, Andrew caught at his sleeve, his emotions angry and doubtful and confused and- he seemed to be just as upset as Neil. “No. _No_ ,” he told Neil as he let go of him yet held up his hand to keep Neil in his chair. “I didn’t do anything to you,” he said in a rush as if he’d guessed what had upset Neil. “I can tell when you’re lying, all right? But I swear to you that I didn’t force you to tell me anything.” He glanced at the gauntlet while his hand hovered near Neil’s chest. “I’m not sure it could even work on you, and I’m not going to try, I swear that to you.”

Part of him didn’t want to trust the man… but Neil could feel his emotions, could tell in a way that Andrew wasn’t lying just then. Also, Nuit and Ombré were blocking him from moving from the chair, so he let out a shaking breath as he jerked his right hand through his hair. “Never try,” he warned Andrew. “This is a mess.”

“Agreed.” Andrew eyed him for a couple of seconds as if to make sure that Neil wouldn’t run away before his suspicions faded, then sank back into his own chair and glared at Kevin. “Seriously? You think I’m tied to Oberon in some way?”

Kevin grimaced as he flexed his scarred left hand. “You have the torc and it works for you. You have a rarely seen ability among the Fae and an almost unnatural amount of magic at your command.” He motioned at the book once more. “You even resemble Oberon somewhat. _Yes_ , I think you’re tied to him, tied to him because you’re his heir.” He sounded a bit jealous, a bit wistful, but Neil suspected it was more about the magic and the enchanted items than power for Kevin.

It was quiet for almost a minute, save for Andrew’s spirits fiddling with various things about the large room and Betsy shooing them away, until Andrew scoffed once more. “Oh the Fae are just going to love that, a _changeling_ ending up as your precious High King’s heir.”

Kevin grimaced at that statement while Neil shrugged. “Power wins out in the end,” Neil said. “Show them your power,” he told Andrew. That earned him a thoughtful look from the necromancer and more of the odd emotions before Andrew picked up his mug.

“True words, those,” Betsy commented as she approached the table. “Whatever their prejudices, the Fae can’t deny you when you both beat them down with magic and then drag the truth out of them.”

“Oh Bee, you need to hide your fangs better if you want to fool everyone,” Andrew taunted, but Neil could feel the affection the necromancer had for the Leannan Sidhe.

She flashed him a quick grin before she adjusted her glasses. “It’s part of my scheme to confuse them – a hint of sharp teeth to make them think they’re seeing things and then doubt it ever happened.”

Andrew gave her a quick salute before his emotions settled and he refocused his attention back on Kevin; while he was occupied, Neil swiped a remaining pastry for the pixies. “All right, so that’s two of three, the idiot fox and me.” Neil sighed at his nickname but settled for sipping the now cool tea which Betsy had made for him rather than trying to argue. “What about Titania?”

Kevin frowned as he turned to another page in the book, to one illustrated in pale colors save for the Seelie queen with her long black hair and dark green dress, which set off her pale skin and emerald green eyes. Yet again Neil was reminded of the rose gold ring with the emerald stone, was reminded of Kevin… and then caught a glimpse of the ring drawn on the queen’s left forefinger – the same one he’d seen on the Dark Road.

“It’s said that the ring could provide Titania a glimpse at whatever a person truly desired,” Kevin explained. “Oberon had to be careful in what he gave his queens since they were at – well, since Titania was often at Maeb’s throat out of jealousy. He gave Maeb something to protect herself, but he had to give Titania something equally powerful yet which couldn’t be an outright weapon against the Unseelie queen. Titania’s ring was a compromise, was a way for her to gain control over people yet not outright hurt Maeb since not everyone fell under its sway.”

“This is beginning to sound like some stupid romance novel or worse,” Andrew complained. “Like some telenovela Nicky follows whenever he has the chance.”

“What?” Neil asked out of confusion. “Tela…?”

Andrew was quiet for a moment, and then wicked amusement flowed over their bond even though his expression remained blank. “Oh, this is _priceless_. Where should we start? Someone needs Twilight inflicted upon them right away.”

“Andrew, _no_ ,” Betsy said, her tone harsh and expression disapproving.

“What? I’m not starting with Fifty Shades of Grey, am I?”

Neil blinked in confusion. “What about grey? I like grey.” And twilight – that was the Dark Road for him.

For some reason Kevin’s expression blanched just then and he took to waving his hands about in the air with such an urgency that Ombré whined and Nuit rested his head on top of the table. “No, uhm, no,” Kevin insisted. “It’s not that type of grey, and Andrew don’t you dare.”

“He needs to learn eventually,” Andrew said as he reached over to pluck at Neil’s sleeve – which for some reason Neil allowed. Which for some reason the shadow wolves allowed.

“ _Don’t_ ,” both Kevin and Betsy said at the same time, which made Neil frown at Andrew since he suspected it was one of the necromancer’s… well, it was along the lines of the club.

“Do you enjoy tormenting me?” Neil asked as he pulled Nuit away from the table.

A miniscule smile tugged at the corners of Andrew’s full lips. “Yes.”

That made Neil frown as he rose from the table. “If we’re done here?”

“But I have some questions about the Dark Road and the shadow wolves!” Kevin gave him an aggrieved look as he rose as well. “Where did you find the gauntlet and the torc? Is the ring out there? How are we going to find Titania’s heir?”

Neil sighed as he shook his head. “I know where the ring is, but I can’t get to it.” He shot Andrew a pointed look as he ignored the rest of Kevin’s questions in his deliberate attempt to derail them. “Not while I’m kept on someone else’s leash.”

“And once again it’s my fault, what a surprise,” Andrew mused while dark amusement washed over their bond, before he turned on Kevin. “No, don’t even try,” he told the Tuatha de Danann. “We have our little appointment with Riko in front of the High Court, which means no jaunting off to run around the Dark Road and lose days, got it?” He glanced over at Neil while Kevin took to stuttering in indignation. “How far away is that cache with the ring?”

“A bit – at least… well, time is different there, but it’ll take at least what you think of as a day to reach it from here,” Neil warned. “A day by my estimate, so longer with how slow you are.”

Andrew felt vindicated upon hearing that. “So we’ll lose a week, maybe more, and I’m not about to risk that right now,” he told Kevin. “Bee?”

“I agree,” the Leannan Sidhe added. “The Dark Road is too much of an unknown for you to go off there, especially when we know that at least the Moriyamas have their people looking for Neil and so might pose a risk. Wait until after the trial at the High Court to retrieve the item and then search for Titania’s heir, especially since it’s been safe there this long.”

Kevin appeared frustrated at that bit of news, but after a few seconds slammed the book shut then picked it up as he stood. “We’ll leave as soon as the matter is settled at the High Court.”

Someone was being rather heavy handed at the moment, but Neil didn’t care since it meant that he would have a reason to spend some time on the Dark Road. Andrew must have realized that since he was a little unhappy but quickly nodded.

“Well, I’ll mark this day down since it appears that progress has been made,” Betsy remarked as she leaned against the end of the table. “Progress made and no major bloodshed.”

“We can always correct that,” Andrew remarked as he stood up then reached for Neil’s sleeve yet again. “Heel.”

Neil took to swearing in old Fae as he found himself dragged out of the Leannan Sidhe’s workroom by a rude necromancer while Ombré and Nuit trotted at his heels

“Why do you do this?” Neil asked once they were out in the hallway – he tugged at his arm to emphasis his point.

“Because you don’t come with a leash,” Andrew shot back, then huffed when Neil halted all of a sudden as dark memories washed through him, of being in the cell with the iron cuffs. “Don’t,” Andrew told him even as he let go of Neil’s sleeve, as something like understanding and quiet washed through Neil. “It’s not like that, don’t take everything so damn literally.” He stood in front of Neil with the spirits behind him but just out of reach, stood there as a calm center while Neil’s emotions tore through him, as Neil- he fought to push back everything, to just exist in the _now_ where he was in the Foxhole Court with Nuit and Ombré pressed against his legs and safe and sound, without any iron on his body or any need to run….

Dammit, how could Andrew knock him off-balance so easily yet center him at the same time? Could stand there so solid and calm and emanating the faint scent of smoke which made Neil want to lean in and bury his nose against that thick neck, want to… why didn’t Neil know what he wanted when it came to Andrew?

“You… I don’t understand,” Neil confessed. “I should be running away from you, not going along with you.”

“Seems to me that running away hasn’t gotten you much.” Andrew stood there with his hands loose by his sides as he stared at Neil. “So give sticking around a chance and listen to me, why don’t you?”

The rude bastard…. Neil rolled his eyes as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “Do you think it’ll make things better if I have the wolves kill you?” he asked in an almost joking manner, since Andrew had the damn torc and all. Not that it was his preferred option anymore, but he felt he owed it to his mother to ask, especially since it was the easiest way out of the mess.

Andrew’s eyes narrowed at the question, and then the right corner of his lips quirked just the tiniest bit. “It doesn’t seem that way.”

Neil swore low and fierce in old Fae for several seconds while Nuit coughed in amusement; wasn’t that just his luck? “Why is it never that easy?”

“Because you’re just not that lucky, Princess.”

“Don’t,” Neil snapped as he wrapped his left hand around the gauntlet. “Don’t call me that.” Not when he didn’t want to consider the complications of being Maeb’s heir.

“Then ‘fox’ it is,” Andrew said as he waved Neil toward the door leading out to the gardens.

“But… I didn’t… you asshole.” Neil glared at the necromancer as he attempted to figure out Andrew’s logic just then, and had a sinking feeling that he was stuck with the annoying ‘fox’ nickname and everything that went with it.

“Show some respect to your king.”

Neil let him know under no uncertain terms just what he could do with that respect in old Fae, which seemed to amuse Andrew despite the fact that he couldn’t understand the language, though outwardly all he did was light a cigarette.

Once they reached the willow tree, Andrew motioned for Neil to sit down when they were underneath the privacy of the tree’s branches. “All right, I know there was something more than you recognizing the ring, I felt it.” He gazed at Neil and waited for some sort of expectation, judging from his emotions.

“Yes.” Neil sank down to the ground and leaned against the tree’s trunk with the wolves tucked against him and a couple of pixies complaining about Andrew’s presence, and only debated holding back on what he knew for a moment or two because of Andrew’s deal with Kevin; it probably wouldn’t go well for the mess between them if Neil kept what he suspected about the ring to himself since it involved Kevin, not when it was evident that Andrew took his oaths seriously. “I think I know who’s the third heir,” he admitted as he pulled the purloined pastry out of his pouch to give it to the pixies, who chattered about in excitement over the treat.

Andrew gave him a level look for several seconds while Neil met it with an even one of his one then cursed as he tossed the cigarette aside. “ _Kevin_? Really?”

“I only know that when you picked the torc, I thought about the ring and Kevin,” Neil admitted with a shrug as he pet Nuit’s head. “And I thought the same thing again when Kevin showed us the pictures of Titania. We won’t know for certain until I go fetch it, but it might explain why he’s so obsessed about it.”

“Dammit.” Andrew was quiet for a moment while his spirits caused the branches to wave about as if blown by a strong breeze for a few seconds. “He’s Seelie and a powerful spellcaster, so it makes sense.” Andrew frowned, the expression slight but obvious if one was familiar with the necromancer, as he stared at Neil. “It also explains why Tetsuji and Riko are so determined to have him under their thumb, if they suspect anything about potential heirs appearing. You told us that Tetsuji tried to take the gauntlet from you.”

Neil shivered as he remembered those attempts and what happened when Tetsuji had failed. “Yes.” He pushed back against the feel of hands on him, of- “He tried to get me to tell him where I found it, asked me if there were more items like it on the Dark Road but I didn’t tell him anything.” He knew if he gave in on one thing, it wouldn’t be long until he gave in on everything.

“Lola said your father suspected you of being _something_.” Andrew slipped a knife free but since Neil didn’t feel any malice or intent to harm, so he and the wolves remained curled up on the ground and unconcerned while Andrew tapped it against the nails of his left fingers. “Perhaps he and Tetsuji thought you might be Maeb’s heir because of your bloodline, that or they figured you could at least access the Dark Road and find them the items which would help them identify the heirs.”

If Tetsuji and his father suspected him of being Maeb’s heir, they were never going to leave Neil alone. “That only makes me more valuable to them, me and Kevin.” Neil rubbed at his eyes before he gave Andrew a bleak look. “It puts you in danger, too.” Had they suspected Andrew of being Oberon’s heir? Tried to control him with the potion? Or had they overlooked a changeling and treated Andrew like something to be toyed with and tossed aside, only now to find out that Andrew… oh what a mistake.

“What, you think some people won’t be pleased to discover that me, a lowly changeling, is the second coming of Oberon?” Andrew gave Neil a razor thin smile as cruel amusement flowed into him. “Not that I care, when my main priority right now is to make sure that you and Kevin survive our upcoming visit to the High Court. So no little jaunts to the Dark Road, sorry, especially if it means that Kevin will end up with a bit of flash that’ll mark him as a certain bitch queen’s reincarnation or whatever.” Andrew’s full lips flattened as he gave Neil a pointed look. “We seem to be stuck with these things, but the longer we can keep Kevin unconfirmed, the better.”

“He’s going to be after us to go fetch the ring the moment we return from the High Court,” Neil warned.

“Then we’ll distract him with a case of vodka or something.” Andrew seemed to wave off Neil’s concern, but his emotions seemed to belay his nonchalant attitude. “One crisis at a time.”

Wasn’t that an accurate way to describe the mess they were in? “So reassuring, you are,” Neil said as he scratched beneath Nuit’s chin.

“I don’t bother with reassuring, just being right,” Andrew shot back. “Now behave, don’t go causing any new problems for me, and stay put.”

Neil stared at him for a couple of seconds before he sighed. “Can’t you maybe just bite him a little to make me feel better?” he asked Nuit, who gave a low whine while wagging his tail. By way of answer, Andrew gave him the finger as he walked away, the spirits shoving the branches out of his way as if eager servants quick to do their king’s bidding.

A smile tugged on Neil’s mouth as he watched the necromancer leave, and despite everything he found himself in a good mood for the rest of the day.

*******

They didn’t tell everyone about Kevin’s ‘heir’ theory, just Wymack and by extension Abby since the man didn’t keep anything a secret from his girlfriend. Andrew thought that was more than enough, would have been content if the knowledge hadn’t gone past Bee’s lab but Wymack needed to know just why Tetsuji Moriyama had it out for the Foxhole Court, why he would do his best to tear Wymack apart in front of the High Court.

To give him credit, Wymack didn’t treat Andrew or Neil any different after the revelation, still was his usual gruff self, though Andrew caught the man’s dark eyes lingering on the golden torc around his neck from time to time, lingering on the mutts trailing behind Neil as the shadow walker roamed the gardens or halls.

Neil had become a little more relaxed in the knowe since their trip to the Dark Road, since he realized that he wasn’t being kept from his precious ‘home’ – at least not permanently. He still spent most of his time out in the gardens, but he didn’t seem to be avoiding anyone in particular (well, he didn’t care much for Seth, that was obvious, something Seth shared in common with the idiot, and it was almost amusing to watch Neil go on guard around Bee the few times their paths crossed). It was more a personal preference, something Neil explained to Andrew one evening when Andrew joined him out at the oak tree while Neil sat on one of the lower branches as the pixies flew about him.

“I spent most of my life outdoors, when I think about it. We were always running somewhere, were camping out in the mortal world or on the Dark Road or the spaces between knowes.” Neil gave a faint shrug as he whittled oak branches into spears for the flying pests while a couple took to braiding flowers into his curls; Andrew wondered if the idiot got along so well with the tiny Fae because they were Unseelie, if it was more of him being Maeb’s heir. “It’s been… uhm, the last time I regularly spent time in a building was back when I lived in my father’s knowe.” Pain flashed over their bond as he closed his eyes and shivered a little, pain and horror.

Baiting’s End, one of the oldest knowes out there, from what Andrew had recently learned. Ancient and huge compared to the Foxhole Court, yet it was clear that Neil considered it a place to be avoided at all costs, much like Evermore, another famous knowe he’d spent some time in lately. A place he probably did his best to avoid and not think about as well.

No wonder the idiot hadn’t wanted anything to do with the Foxhole Court, the more Andrew learned about ‘the Butcher’ and Baiting’s End, the more he felt Neil’s emotions and learned about his past. The more he heard the voice say ‘ _truth_ ’ when Neil recounted some new horror.

Yet Andrew kept his word and hadn’t forced those truths out of Neil – out of Neil and Kevin. Andrew was still learning to control the new magic, to watch what he said because he had inadvertently forced the truth out of his fellow Foxes a few times (fortunately not over anything too important, but he didn’t need to know that Allison was frustrated over how Seth’s growing dependence on goblin fruit was impacting their sex life or how Matt had a crush on Neil), yet for some reason Neil and Kevin were exempt from the torc.

Well, maybe not such an odd thing, if you thought about how Oberon was tied to the two queens. Except Andrew didn’t want to think how that meant he was tied to Kevin and Neil, especially when he already felt too many things tethering to a certain idiot.

The time leading up to the full moon was spent with Kevin managing to convince Neil to partake in some magic and weapons duels, which Andrew watched over to ensure that Kevin didn’t overdo anything out of eagerness and that Neil… well, he wasn’t sure when it came to Neil. Part of it was him being interested in what the shadow walker could do, and he had to admit that Kevin was right in Neil being an asset to the knowe when it came to fighting. Neil lacked Kevin’s formal training, the finesse that Kevin had honed over the decades at Evermore, but the idiot had years of real-life experience from being on the run that were enhanced by instinct. The two were polar opposites in many ways, were striking to watch as they cast curses and spells at each other or Kevin attempted to strike at an elusive Neil who used the shadows of the knowe (Andrew figured out a way to relax the geas that much) to fade in and out, one armed with a sword and the other his knives.

He watched them, two people he’d sworn to protect, two people he was tied to in some unfathomable way, and wondered what it was about them, wondered why Fate or whatever thought it was a good idea to leave the future of the Fae in the hands of a drunk coward, a hot-tempered runner, and… well, a mess like Andrew.

If he ever needed proof that the universe had a fucked-up sense of humor, he had it now.

Just like when it was his turn to practice with Kevin, to use his staff and spirits to block Kevin’s sword, he could feel Neil’s eyes upon him just like back on the Dark Road, back at that river (more like creek), could feel the confusion and focus and something that felt an awful lot like interest and… and…. Dammit, it was as if Neil wasn’t sure himself about what he was feeling, but it was almost _there_ , was the beginnings of something, was the way the confusion grew when Andrew called out ‘staring’ and Kevin sighed in exasperation, how Neil would look away then glance back all puzzled and uncertain.

It wasn’t just what had happened at Evermore, which was more than enough to keep Andrew from going through with anything even if there was a clear interest on Neil’s part, but he didn’t get an answer until one day when Nicky had tagged along to the garden after wheedling Neil’s help in harvesting some holly he needed for a charm he was casting. Since Andrew didn’t entirely trust Nicky around Neil (not when his cousin was bored and hadn’t seen Erik in several months – there were certain lines Nicky wouldn’t cross or he’d already be dead, but Nicky tended to be overenthusiastic and brainless at times, and it was difficult for him to feel guilty later when a shadow wolf had already ripped out his throat for unthinkingly getting too handsy with Neil), he tagged along as well.

“So Erik should be there at the High Court,” Nicky babbled to Neil, who as usual was surrounded by pixies whom flitted about while gibbering in their shrill language. “A lot of people from other knowes will be, and as soon as he hears that the Foxhole Court is being called out, he’ll make a point of showing up, he always does.”

“Uhm, good for you?” Neil glanced at Andrew, who shrugged while giving a slight nod; Erik honestly seemed to care for Nicky, it was just that they were both sworn to different knowes and Erik hadn’t been able to talk his lady, some prissy Daoine Sidhe, into taking in Nicky, Aaron and Andrew – in taking in three _changelings_. Nicky, to give him credit, hadn’t been willing to accept an offer to a knowe if it meant leaving behind his cousins, and so they hadn’t joined a knowe until they found one which had accepted the three of them. At the moment, Erik was working on fulfilling his duty so he could join the Foxhole Court.

“Yeah.” For a moment Nicky’s smile faltered while he picked the holly and then it rallied. “It’s tough, but we’re thinking a few more decades at the most and he’ll be able to come here.”

“That would be nice.” Neil sounded rote just then, but then again, his parents’ marriage had been a disaster so Andrew didn’t think he was one to buy into ‘true love’ and everything. While Nicky picked some more holly, Neil murmured to the pixies – to one with silver hair and bright wings in particular.

Wincing a little as he gathered the sharp-edged leaves, Nicky glanced back at the shadow walker. “So, what about you, eh?” Neil blinked in confusion when he realized that the question was directed at him. “Anyone out there you’re missing? Any sweeties in another knowe?”

“Nicky,” Andrew warned, ready to throttle his cousin for crossing a line while Neil’s expression went blank and the mutts pressed against his legs. Even the pixies picked up on something being wrong, as they took to hissing and darted at Nicky, only to be stopped by Neil saying something in their sibilant language.

“No,” he told Nicky once the flying pests were once more hovering around him. “I don’t… uhm, no ‘sweeties’.” He took to frowning as he reached into his pouch for what looked to be a cloth wrapped around some cookies he must have picked up in the kitchen earlier, which the pixies gathered together to carry off with shrill cries of delight. “I’m not interested in anyone like that.”

( _Truth… and not truth_ , the damn voice told Andrew.)

Nicky gaped at Neil as if he was still speaking Pixie. “What? How can you not be interested in anyone?”

“I just am, or aren’t,” Neil said. “I’ve spent most of my life on the run or on the Dark Road, and the only people who seemed interested in me were human girls.” A slight blush tinted his cheeks for a moment. “Kissing one of them was… well, it was okay, but nothing worth the trouble.”

( _Truth_.)

Andrew wondered what the ‘trouble’ was which Neil referred to, as well as the ‘ _not truth_ ’ which had been whispered in his head when Neil had said that he wasn’t interested in anyone. Not ‘ _truth_ ’, not ‘ _lie_ ’, but ‘ _not truth’_. Meaning that it was a bit of both, that Neil himself had no clue to what he was feeling.

Andrew didn’t need to know that.

“But that’s just, that’s- ow, Andrew!”

“Leave him alone,” Andrew warned his cousin who was glaring at him. “He’s fine as he is.”

Nicky appeared ready to argue about that, but he knew by then that he could never win against Andrew so after a couple of seconds he gave in and finished collecting the holly. As for Neil, he gave Andrew a grateful smile, pixie dust glittering all over his attractive face, which left Andrew reminded about how much the universe hated him.

Not just the universe, it seemed, when about a week before the trial at the High Court, Bee caught up to Andrew after he’d raided the kitchen for some sweets to eat. “Do you have a moment?”

That wasn’t very promising. “Depends, what do you want?”

“As direct as ever.” Bee smiled for a moment before her expression grew serious; there were dark circles beneath her brown eyes and her light brown shirt was wrinkled as if she’d been wearing it for too long. “David, Kevin and I have been working on his argument for the High Court, but… well, it’s best to be direct.” She pushed her glasses farther up her nose as she looked him in the eye. “You managed to get information about what the Moriyamas are planning before, can you do it again? Any information that will help shape David’s defense would be appreciated, especially since we can’t leave the knowe right now.”

The request was quite a surprise. “We can’t leave the knowe, but you want me to? Oh Bee, and here I thought you liked me.” Behind him, the spirits took to tugging on the tapestries in a show of displeasure.

“You’re the one with the contacts, Andrew, and I’m not about to get into one of our word games when time is short and so has been my sleep.” She held his gaze without any shred of shame or regret, without any reproach or guilt. “You’re the one with the contacts and the bond with the shadow walker, yes?”

A slight laugh broke free before he shook his head and reined in the spirits. “I don’t know if I should pat you on the back or punch you, you know.”

“Do neither, Andrew, just help us out, if you don’t mind. Help out the knowe… as well as Neil and Kevin.”

Ah yes, that was Bee, was the Leannan Sidhe who could ask so sweetly while reminding one of the cost if you dug in your heels. “Neil hates the mortal world, remember?” Andrew gave her a smile that was all teeth and no cheer. “He’s not going to be happy.”

To her credit, Bee had the grace to appear guilty at last. “I’ll have potions ready for both of you when you return, and we wouldn’t ask if we didn’t feel it’s important. It shouldn’t be as bad, though, if you both go together.”

“You’ll owe me,” Andrew argued, and when Bee agreed to that open-ended cost, gave a nod before he went off in search of a certain idiot.

He found Neil in the common room, where Matt was holding up his phone and trying to explain its features to the idiot when it didn’t work in the knowe. "-it's really useful, I swear! Once you're in the mortal world, it can do all these things like look up the weather and play games and...." He sighed when he noticed the dubious look that Neil was giving him. "And you don't care, do you?"

Neil shook his head as he eyed the device with evident distaste. "When would I use it? Besides, it seems pointless." His right hand took to stroking along the top of Ombré’s head while she gave a soft whine. "Who would I, uhm, call?"

Matt's expression softened as he stared down at Neil. "You have us now, you know. You'd call one of us."

That statement confused Neil, and before he could say something that would annoy Andrew or upset Matt (not that Andrew cared about the latter), Andrew called out. "Heel, fox." He snapped his fingers as well. "Come here."

Matt appeared offended for Neil while the idiot merely sighed and muttered something in old Fae while he stood up. "I think that torc is cutting off the flow of blood to what little brains you have," Neil said in English as he approached.

"They're still more brains than you'll ever have," Andrew told him with a bored look as they walked away. Despite the flash of exasperation he'd felt when he'd called out to Neil, now all he sensed was curiosity and an odd peace, something he drank in since he knew it wouldn't last much longer. A nice thing about the shadow walker was that Neil knew how to be quiet, knew to give Andrew some time to come up with his answers, and so he didn't have to explain anything until they reached one of the places in the garden which the pixies had reclaimed.

Neil smiled at the flying pests as they darted about the thick rose bushes and called out to them in their own language, and didn't care when a couple of them landed on his shoulders while Nuit and Ombré seemed to ignore the tiny creatures; Andrew kept his spirits close and fought the urge to shudder at the thought of the pixies' minute yet sharp claws and teeth near Neil's face. The pixies spoke to Neil for about a minute, which made him hum a little before he nodded and answered them something which made them cry out in apparent delight and launch themselves in the air.

"More jinxes?"

Neil smiled at Andrew as he wiped at the glowing powder on his cheek. "Well, you want more of the dust, right? Seth's proving rather stubborn and they're having a lot of fun, so more jinxes."

"Fun all around," Andrew drawled as he folded his arms over his chest. "So, up for a trip to the Dark Road?"

Excitement and happiness washed into Andrew for a moment - and quickly was replaced by caution and suspicion. "You told me that it wasn't a good idea to go there so close to leaving for the High Court," Neil reminded him as he rested his hands on the mutts' backs. "We can't risk being there too long or Riko trying something."

"And I stand by that. But we need some information from a... colleague of mine, and the quickest way to get it is if we use your talent," Andrew argued.

Neil stared at him as his emotions warred with each other - a mix of longing, suspicion, relief and dread before he heaved a long sigh. "It's that club again, isn't it?" he asked in a weary voice.

"Yes." Andrew refused to be moved by the intense wave of displeasure and unhappiness he felt just then. "I know you hated it there, but I think you also weren't too happy about how you felt when we were so far apart." He stomped down on the memory of what else had happened that night. "If you come with me, you can use the Dark Road for a little bit and I swear to you that we won't be at Eden's for too long, just until I get some information from Roland."

There was more swearing from Neil as he ran his right hand through his hair while indecision tore through them both, until he sighed once more. "Fine, but no drinking or eating."

"Not for you," Andrew agreed as he eyed the idiot up and down. "Now come, you need to change."

Neil shuddered at that. "I'm not wearing those- I'll pull on a glamour," he argued as he shook his head.

"You at least need a pair of shoes, idiot." Andrew grabbed onto the sleeve of Neil's off-white tunic and began to drag him away from the rose bushes. "And something not covered in dog hair."

He was pretty sure what was muttered at him just then was old Fae for 'bastard'.

( _Truth_.)

Well, nice to have that confirmed.

It took a good bit of glowering (on Neil's part), of flat looks (on Andrew's), insults (both of them) and promise to hold down a certain idiot and dress him like a child (Andrew) until Neil pulled on the pair of soft suede boots that Allison had gotten for him, along with an overlarge pale grey cotton sweater that Neil found bearable since the material was natural. The Valkyrie was still on Neil about getting a haircut before they left for the High Court, and Andrew had the suspicion that if Neil didn't agree in the next couple of days, he was going to find himself cornered by Allison, Abby and Dan until he did.

"I don't see why this matters," Neil complained as he tugged on the hem of the sweater.

"Because the more you have to hide, the more attention it draws to you," Andrew said as he held out his left hand. "Let's go."

That earned him another weary sigh, but Neil grasped his hand without any hesitation and within the next breath they were on the Dark Road, where Neil's bad mood fell away and he smiled with evident happiness at being back 'home'.

Before he could pull away, Andrew shook his head. "Later, let's go to Eden's and then you can spend a little while here." He figured Neil would need it after being at the club. "And you two can wait for us," he told the mutts, since he didn't want to think how the patrons at Eden's would react to their presence. Well, it was a somewhat interesting thought, the panic the shadow wolves would cause, but not when they wanted to get some answers without drawing attention to themselves.

That earned him some more displeasure from Neil, but Nuit just gave him a 'smile' while Ombré rubbed against Neil's legs for a moment before walking away a couple of feet then flopping onto the dark ground. "No tricks tonight," Neil stressed as he squeezed Andrew’s hand once more, which made Andrew give him a flat look.

"No tricks," he agreed, and only the fact that he could feel Neil's unease kept him from adding on a biting comment. "Now the club, and somewhere out of the way."

That earned him a mocking scoff, right before Neil's magic flared, a quick scent of roses and something which reminded Andrew of fall, of dried leaves and old forests, and then they found themselves in one of the storerooms - thankfully the one which housed the alcohol. Andrew had to steady Neil as nausea washed through them both, as Neil struggled to control his breathing and his skin took on an unhealthy grey tone.

Holding onto the idiot's shoulders, Andrew gave him a slight push toward the wall, which Neil slumped against while he adjusted to the mortal world, to the smoky air, to the metal kegs all around them, the thump of the bass, the flickering of the florescent lights above and the concrete floor beneath their feet. Despite being Fae-owned and a sanctuary, Eden's Twilight was firmly in the mortal world.

"Really? Not even two seconds here and you're already like this?" Andrew mocked, hoping to give Neil something to focus on other than how terrible he was feeling at the moment.

That earned him a weak glare and a stirring of annoyance. "This world... more... disgusting each time," Neil panted as if the air sickened him with every breath. "How can you...." He paused to take a deep swallow as if struggling to keep from throwing up. "How can you stand it?"

Andrew shrugged at the question, even though his skin itched from all of the pollutants and so much metal in the room. "Maybe because I was born here? That and I'm not a pathetic pureblood like you." A pureblood and an idiot who had tied himself to the Dark Road.

That pulled a faint laugh from Neil as he gently grasped the hands holding onto his shoulders - not to make Andrew let go but to help steady him as he struggled to stand up straight. "Just... another moment." He closed his eyes as he held on to Andrew's wrists, his grasp light as if unwilling to restrain Andrew in any manner.

As for Andrew, he was suddenly aware of how close they were standing together, of how the scent of Neil’s magic clung to him along with the odd almost ozone-like tang of the shadow wolves. How Andrew just had to tilt his chin up a little to-

He rocked back a little as he concentrated on searching out any spirits in the nearby vicinity, on the sense of dead as a welcome distraction. “Any day now,” he said as he picked up on a cemetery about two miles away.

Neil sighed as he gave Andrew’s wrists a quick squeeze before he let go. “Let’s get this over with.” Determination and misery flowed into Andrew as Neil took an unsteady step away from the wall.

“Glamour,” Andrew reminded the idiot as he grabbed a bottle of whiskey from an open case, and sighed himself when Neil cursed in French before casting a spell to hide his unnatural eyes and ears, to mute his striking coloring.

Andrew had just taken a swig of whiskey when they stepped out of the storeroom and nearly choked on it as Neil faltered upon the full impact of the loud music as well as the sight of crowded main room, his emotions in turmoil. Andrew knew that the idiot had been miserable that night when he’d dragged Neil here – that had been the whole point of it – but now that he could _feel_ it….

He reacted without thinking, found his left hand lifting to slide through the thick strands of hair hiding Neil’s nape to curve around warm, soft skin; it was similar to the gesture he’d seen Neil do so many times before with the shadow wolves, seen Neil’s hands fall to their napes as he sought out reassurance or to convince them that he was fine.

This time Andrew tried to convey to his- well, to Neil that it was all right, that the shadow walker wasn’t alone, and to his surprise (his continuing surprise), Neil’s tense body relaxed at the touch instead of pulling away or lashing out, his emotions calmed a little. Then surprise took over as Neil’s head turned so he could look at Andrew, his eyes – magicked to appear normal – wide and lips parted a bit.

Andrew gave his nape a slight squeeze. “Done being a dramatic little shit?”

Neil shook his head as he rubbed at his forehead. “Is this some trick of the Moriyamas to break me and send me running back to Evermore just to get away from you?”

“Foxes should be seen and not heard,” Andrew insisted as he gave the idiot a gentle push forward, mindful to remain close since people at the club knew him on sight and hurried to get out of his way; he missed the spirits and wished that he had a few on hand to help clear a path, but the feel of his magic alone was enough to make most people step aside.

Soon enough they reached the bar, which Neil was quick to press against for support, his face slick with sweat and arms tucked against his body; Andrew could feel his revulsion from the times when people had brushed against him, from what had better been inadvertent touches, had felt the flares of Neil’s magic struggling to break free of the geas so he could escape. He had also felt something dark and hungry, something which he suspected was the magic that Neil had inherited from his father, and wondered if Neil’s graceful, skilled hands tucked into the crook of his elbows was to keep him from going for the knives Andrew sensed tucked into the back of those dark pants or into the left boot.

He positioned himself as a buffer between Neil and the crowd, no longer sensitized to Neil’s scent or the feel of soft hair brushing against his chin when there was an echo of invisible hands stroking along his skin to make him want to scratch at it until he bled, when familiar old demons fought to break free. For a moment Neil gasped as that hungry magic flared… and then he slumped a little more against the bar as gratitude and something so warm and odd and a bit frightening flowed over the link, something that just might… just might be trust, Andrew suspected.

( _Truth_.)

The revelation left him so off-balance that he was giving in to his first impulse (his second, actually – his first was to turn around and walk away in the opposite direction as quickly as possible, except he couldn’t leave Neil) to drink as much whiskey as possible when Roland came over to them. “Huh, you look – Andrew?” Roland grinned at him, at least until he noticed the whiskey bottle. “Where’d you get that?”

Andrew lowered the bottle with a great deal of reluctance and wiped at his mouth with the back of his left hand. “Grab some ambrosia and meet us in the storeroom,” he said, and when Roland’s eyebrows rose with a sudden interest while he glanced back and forth between Andrew and Neil, he glared. “ _No_.”

The Tuatha de Danann held up his hands as if to fend off a blow while he shook his head. “Hey, I wasn’t saying anything.”

No, but he was implying, and nothing like that was ever going to happen – first, Andrew wasn’t into threesomes and second, nothing like that would ever occur with Neil involved. “I have some questions for you and not much time, so get moving,” he said as he once more grasped Neil by the nape of the neck. “Come on,” he urged the shadow walker.

“Hate this place,” Neil murmured as he pushed himself away from the bar and, with only a moment’s hesitation, sidled next to Andrew with a sense of apprehension which turned into relief when Andrew tugged him closer by the right sleeve. “So, uhm, he’s your friend?”

“Yes,” was all Andrew said, which seemed to placate Neil’s curiosity; he reached around Neil’s back to snatch at the Ghillie Dhu who grabbed at Neil with a too friendly smile. While Andrew might be prevented from stabbing the bastard since Eden’s was neutral territory, he could still give the Fae’s fingers a rough twist to teach him some manners – him and the Korred who tried much the same thing about a minute later. Andrew wasn’t as gentle that time, especially when Neil swore in old Fae and there was a pungent smell of wet leather for a moment before a laughing pack of Trow almost crashed into them.

Neil was trembling with rage and the effects of – what did one call being unable to bear the mortal world, Andrew wondered for a moment as he half dragged the idiot into the storeroom. “Seriously, you can’t stand being here even this long?”

“I think… I think that last one tried a spell,” Neil said with a wince as he held his right arm cradled to his chest, where Andrew could see gleaming silver push past the grey cuff of his sleeve to encompass most of his right hand. “It had to be potent because my arm hurts.”

Torn between tracking down the Korred to feed the Fae her own spleen and unwilling to leave a weakened Neil, Andrew was about to offer him the remaining whiskey when Roland finally slid into the room. “Something’s going on out there, the crowd’s agitated tonight.”

The ‘crowd’ – or some of them - had somehow figured out that there was a valuable shadow walker on the premises, Andrew was willing to bet; he didn’t know if they were targeting anyone who showed up with him or if someone had seen through Neil’s glamour and didn’t really care, except it meant that they didn’t have much time. “Give me the ambrosia and tell me everything you know about the upcoming trial at the High Court,” he demanded as he set the bottle of whiskey aside.

“Huh?” Roland appeared confused as he handed over the small bottle of the potent elixir to Andrew, who in turn gave it to Neil, who eyed it with a token wariness. “Wait, who is he, really?”

“No one you need to concern yourself with, and drink it,” Andrew told the idiot, who huffed as he accepted it without bitching for once, that damned trust winning out in the end. A pleased moan slipped free after the first sip, and Andrew could feel some of Neil’s weariness and aches fade away – it didn’t work on him as strongly as it would Andrew or a ‘normal’ Fae, but it provided some relief.

Roland was eyeing the two of them with suspicion, so Andrew shifted to block Neil from his view. “We don’t have much time, so tell me what you know about the upcoming trial,” he repeated as he handed over more than enough money to cover the bottle and leave Roland with a generous ‘tip’.

The Fae accepted it at first, then shook his head and made to hand it back. “I don’t know, this might be something I shouldn’t involve myself in,” he tried to argue. “I don’t want to-“

Andrew hadn’t wanted to burn any bridges if he could avoid it, but he had sworn to protect Neil, and he was also sworn to Kevin as well as Wymack, so that was three oaths on the line against whatever arrangement he had with Roland – it wasn’t a contest. “ _Tell me what you know_ ,” he said as the torc grew warm around his neck and he could feel Neil still behind him.

“And there’s my-“ Roland’s breath caught for a moment as he stared at Andrew with dark eyes and he shook his head. “All I know is that the Butcher is going to argue that his wife was unstable, that something broke in her and she took their son to the Dark Road where she forced him to… I don’t know all the details, something like she changed him there.” His eyes grew wide and he dropped the money as he attempted to cover his mouth, but the words kept spilling out. “That Nathaniel’s not in his right mind anymore and so should be remanded into his father’s custody, his father’s and Tetsuji’s, so they can find a way to heal him.”

Neil took to muttering in old Fae while Andrew held Roland’s eyes for a moment and saw the confusion and hurt in them. “We’re leaving now.” He couldn’t apologize, not for something he had to do, but he gave Roland a slight nod. “Let them know we’re gone, and it looks like some of your patrons are willing to break the rules. We probably won’t be back,” he explained as he reached for Neil’s free hand.

“Dammit, Andrew, you owe me an explanation, some sort of-“ the rest of Roland’s angry outburst was lost as Neil’s magic swept them off to the Dark Road.

Neil made another happy little groan upon returning to the nightmare world, and tugged his hand free of Andrew’s so he could sink down to his knees while the shadow wolves – the pack had reformed while they’d been away, rushed to surround him. He tossed the remaining ambrosia to Andrew who caught it then finished it off (waste not, want not) before giving the mutts closest a quick pet, then fell onto his back with his knees tucked beneath him. Andrew eyed the flexible bastard for a moment before he forced his thoughts onto what Roland had told them.

“So, we’re screwed if they’re going the insanity route,” he said as he lowered the bottle. “No one’s going to believe you’re sane for a moment.”

Neil pushed Danseur aside to give Andrew a rude gesture. “You’re a bastard, and look who’s talking.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong,” Andrew argued, which earned him more curses in old Fae. After about a minute, Neil sighed and rubbed at his eyes – he’d dropped the glamour as soon as they’d left the club.

“I can’t believe… after everything he’d done to her, everything he made her endure all those years… he’s making this out to be _her_ fault?” Neil’s emotions were a mix of disbelief, rage and pain just then, his expression forlorn as he stared up at the grey sky. “We ran… well, I thought we ran because she finally found the strength to leave him, to get us away from the abuse. Now I know it’s because since I’d inherited his talent as well as hers, Tetsuji would have demanded me right away and my father would have obeyed, only too eager to complete their deal.” The pain increased, along with fear as Neil probably imagined what his life would have been like as a Moriyama vassal. “That’s if she didn’t know about the Maeb thing as well.”

Yet Andrew thought about what hadn’t been said, about a woman who had waited how many years to take her abused child on the run, who hadn’t left as soon as Nathan Wesninski had laid a hand on a young Nathaniel. Who had given the bastard a chance to leave so many scars on a child’s body.

Andrew knew that having a child complicated Fae marriages, but Mary could have done something to protect herself and Nathaniel. She’d been a child of a Firstborn, after all, she had her own knowe, her brother, and enough Fae were jealous of the Moriyamas to stand in their way.

He thought about that some more before he dropped the empty bottle onto Neil’s lap then lit a cigarette. “I’m sure Bee can figure out something to prove your dubious sanity to the High Court, she’s good at shit like that.” At least they knew enough to be prepared.

“Wonderful.” Neil’s emotions took on a more thoughtful turn as he tapped the fingers of his left hand against the bottle. “I’m really not looking forward to going to the High Court.”

Understatement of the decade. “Just think of how pissed off Riko is going to be when we show up his ass there. Now come on, we can’t stay too long.” Andrew motioned for Neil to get up, which prompted a low whine of displeasure from the idiot.

They went in search of some trees so Neil could have something to eat before he left, and by the time they returned to the Foxhole Court it was early morning. Renee, Bee and Abby were waiting for them in the garden, Renee with a mug of coffee in her hand for Andrew, which he drank as he told them what had happened at Eden’s Twilight before having Bee’s potion. Abby was incensed to learn that someone had attempted to bespell Neil while he was there, Renee a little too quiet about the topic, and Bee went off to her lab with a thoughtful gleam in her eyes which assured Andrew that they wouldn’t leave for the High Court without an iron-clad (oh, the irony) argument to beat down Wesninski’s. As for him, he was getting some sleep.

He shook his head when Neil headed toward the one willow tree with Nuit and Ombré, but it wasn’t much of a surprise since he could feel some lingering unease in the idiot because of his father and the upcoming trial, and knew that Neil would be more comfortable sleeping outside.

What was a surprise was, after several hour’s rest (interrupted with a couple of nightmares where Riko and a faceless figure dragged Neil away in iron chains, no doubt influenced by Neil’s emotions) and Kevin catching him while he tried to eat and interrogating him about how the torc had acted with Roland (Andrew was beginning to rethink their whole agreement – how badly would he be bending it by breaking the coward’s jaw for some peace and quiet?), he tracked down a certain idiot to find Neil up in the one oak tree surrounded by pixies… and sporting a new haircut.

Renee, who was perched on a branch beneath him and making flower crowns, waved to Andrew as he came to a halt beneath the canopy of branches and stared up at the two Fae and myriad flying pests. “Hello, did you get some rest?” When Andrew’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the somewhat tamed auburn strands now falling to chin level around Neil’s face, no longer appearing randomly hacked at with a knife and more sleek (had someone given him an undercut?), her smile widened. “He looks much better now, doesn’t he?”

That made Neil look up from the bit of weaving he was doing and frown. “What?”

“I’m telling Andrew about your hair,” Renee said. “You look much better now.”

“Oh.” He handed what must be a jinx to the pixie hovering in front of him then brushed his dust-covered fingers through a lock of hair falling onto his face, which tucked it behind his prominent left ear. “If you say so.” Then he took to frowning at Andrew for some reason. “It was awful, I know Allison insisted that I have to look presentable for the High Court, but if that’s anything like what you have to go through each day for your ‘shaving’, then I truly am sorry for you.”

All right, Andrew actually regretted leaving Kevin and his inane prattling about ancient magic and the big Three just then, who would ever have thought, he told himself as he rubbed at the faint stubble on his chin. “It was a haircut, you idiot,” he gritted out while Renee took to giggling.

“It was all these sharp objects near my head and this razor and-“ Neil shook his head which made his hair fly about in the sun while the pixies darted about complaining about something – probably the way he dislodged some of the tiny flowers they’d put in his hair. “Though I suppose it’s better when you do it yourself. It’s what I’ve done all these years.”

“And why you look like shit,” Andrew reminded him.

“It can be very nice when you let someone else take care of it for you,” Renee said in a too-sweet tone of voice. “A sign of trust and affection, right Andrew?”

Andrew gave her a flat look for her meddling before he turned his attention back on Neil, emotions under control once more as he thought about the agreement they’d made a while ago. “Will you have enough dust now for the one spell?” One of the pixies made a snarling sound at him for the comment and flitted close, but a spirit blocked it with ease.

Neil murmured to it for a moment before he gave Andrew a narrow look. “Yes. If you want to help, fetch me some yellow dock root.”

For a moment Andrew didn’t do anything except lean against the tree and pull out his pack of cigarettes, but when Neil’s frustration reached an appropriate level he sent a spirit off to raid Abby’s work room for the herb. He’d finished the cigarette and cleaned the nails of one hand with a knife when it returned, and watched as Renee had a couple of pixies take the flower crown she’d just created to place it on Neil’s head, which he bore with some annoyance, then create a couple more for the shadow wolves laying in the shade of the tree, which they actually allowed for some fucked up reason.

“Don’t even think of it,” Andrew warned she started on a new one.

“It’s for Allison,” she told him with a sweet smile.

He should have brought a book, but it only was about an hour later, an hour he spent having the spirits create various mischief through the knowe, when Neil finished with the latest batch of jinxes and was covered in glowing pixie dust. He chuckled a little as he conversed with the pixie with silver hair for about a minute, and as soon as she flew away in a swirl of dust and multi-colored wings, took out a small vial so he could carefully scrap away the dust clinging to his skin and clothes.

“About damn time,” Andrew said as he pushed away from the tree. “When will it be ready?” he asked as he tossed an acorn up at the idiot.

Neil glared at him as he placed a topper in the vial. “I’ll need a little time to render it, so by morning.” He felt tired at the moment, probably from casting all those hexes, then his expression smoothed out as he looked in the direction in which the pixies had flown off before he dropped to the ground in a smooth motion. “You might be happy to know that they’re in negotiations with pixies from other knowes and the mortal world to trade the hexes for various goods, so there will be lots of dust in the future.”

“Lovely.” Andrew had a feeling that he’d be able to put it to good use, considering the upcoming trial and the Moriyamas’ sure to be disappointment at being denied. Without thinking, he reached out to resettle the crown of red carnations and daffodils on the tousled auburn strands, which made Neil smile at him – at least until Andrew’s fingers brushed against a pointed ear, and then a jolt of something like pleasure echoed through them as Neil’s face became heated and he stumbled back.

“Uhm.” Neil cupped his left ear and frowned while the mutts pressed against his legs and whined for attention. “That was- ah….”

“I think Allison and Dan will really like these,” Renee said as she dropped to the ground as well while holding out the flower crowns she’d made, one of heather and daffodils and another of heather and chrysanthemum. “Are you coming?” she asked Neil.

He glanced at Andrew who shrugged. “We should probably make sure that Kevin’s not passed out drunk.”

“I suppose.” The awkwardness had passed between them and Neil fell in step beside him as they made their way to the main building. “Wait, isn’t that a good thing?” Neil asked with a playful grin.

Andrew thought about that for a moment, then sighed as he reached for the hood of Neil’s jerkin and yanked it over the idiot’s crowned head. “Why am I stuck with the two of you?” He ignored Neil’s laugh just then, the amusement and sense of safety that flowed into him, the fact that with each passing day Neil seemed to be letting his guard down more and more around Andrew.

Andrew had sworn to protect him, to keep Neil out of the Moriyamas’ and his father’s hand, and he would do just that. Andrew refused to allow Neil to ever be hurt again like he had when he’d shown up at the knowe, to be abused again. But the more Andrew learned about Neil, the more he watched Neil open up, saw him smile and heard him laugh, traded verbal jabs with the idiot or just sat together in silence, the more he wondered if Neil would need someone to protect him from Andrew.

From the improbable, impossible emotions which bubbled up inside of Andrew when he looked at Neil, when he thought about the shadow walker. Emotions which couldn’t be real because someone like Neil was just an insane dream in the first place, was a Fae illusion which would slip away as soon as the geas between them managed to be broken.

( _Lie_ , the voice inside Andrew’s head said, but he didn’t know if it meant about Neil being an illusion or his emotions being fake.)

( _Lie_.)

“Is everything all right?” Neil asked as they entered the main building, the wolves first as if to check it out and then Neil with Renee right behind him since Andrew had paused as he got caught up in his thoughts.

“Yes, have the spirits sensed something?” Renee asked, her gaze instantly alert as her left hand hovered near the pocket of her full skirt.

Andrew shook his head as his emotions twisted for a moment, as they got away from him – a rush of longing and confusion and want. There was surprise from Neil as those unusual eyes of his went wide, and then it turned into consideration as he caught sight of Renee stepping forward.

“Andrew?” the naiad asked as she frowned, only to stop when a spirit pushed her back. “Ah, I’ll go see Allison and Dan.”

He watched her walk away, the reason he was in this mess ( _lie_ ) then turned to Neil with his emotions under control once again.

“Come on, let’s go find the coward.” With Neil there, Kevin’s ability to annoy should be lessened since it was split between two targets.

“All right.” Neil walked beside Andrew with Nuit beside them and the spirits at their back. “Uhm, you know, if you ever want to spend time with Renee, that’s fine.”

Andrew didn’t answer that bit of nonsense because such stupidity didn’t deserve the bit of oxygen it would take to respond, and put down the idiot’s suddenly pensive nature to the approaching date at the High Court.

It was clear that Tetsuji and Riko were going to do their best to take Neil and probably Kevin away, to hurt the Foxhole Court, but they were used to the way that things used to be – to Neil running, to Kevin bowing his head and giving in, to everyone giving way to the Butcher and the Moriyamas. Andrew didn’t know if he believed in Fate or destiny or a stupid piece of enchanted metal determining his future, but he knew that he’d given his word and he wasn’t going to break it. He wasn’t going to allow any harm to come to Kevin or Neil ever again, even if he had to take down one of the strongest Fae clans and a Firstborn.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> OMFG, eight chapters (how many words? Have we hit 100k yet? We probably did *sighs*, just to get to what's driving this story). And I was thinking 'yeah, this will be short, how am I going to get any real chapters out of this?? WHEN WILL I LEARN?
> 
> Anyway, next chapter will be off to the High Court! Hmm, that'll be fun times for all, yes yes. Pack the puppies!
> 
> Next week will be busy, bah. Road trip for me for a family event, but!! Finally wrapping up the project from hell, so I'm hoping after mid-July I can return to the regular posting schedule. Until then I'm having fun w/ fic prompts and getting fics for some great zines and the such.
> 
> As always, thanks so much for the comments and kudos!  
> *******


	9. Muthafucka

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so you get an early chapter this week. I'm not quite sure how crazy tomorrow is going to be (I am SO hopeful that the craziness will end soon) so here you go. You see a character whom some of you may have been waiting for... and one some of you may have been fine without.
> 
> Vague reference to things that have been brought up before. And a couple of interesting things of about Fae. I'm going with my own twist on things here, so....  
> *******

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They were due to leave for the High Court the following day, and Andrew was ready to commit mass homicide, to break the oaths he’d sworn and save Riko Moriyama a good bit of grief when it came to the Foxhole Court. The pixies were fucking annoying, were glowing, multi-colored little shits who were constantly flitting around Neil and calling out to him in their high-pitched voices (constantly calling out in their gibberish language now that there was someone who could understand it, when Andrew knew they could speak English) – even though he had a tiny vial of rendered pixie dust tucked beneath each armband.

Then there was Kevin who kept facilitating between ‘oh shit I have to deal with the Moriyamas’ and ‘once I deal with the Moriyamas I _will_ be going onto the Dark Road and get to play with old crap’. Andrew was actually torn between which was more annoying to deal with, which was surprising – coward Kevin or obsessed Kevin. All he knew for certain was that he was ready to throttle both aspects of the Tuatha de Danann.

Andrew’s family didn’t help matters any, since Nicky was an even bigger pest than normal with how excited he was to see Erik again and couldn’t do anything but go on about what he was packing and what he’d do to the Huldafolk once they both arrived at the High Court (which Andrew didn’t need to hear since he was on forced abstinence thanks to the fucking bond between him and Neil, between him and an oblivious idiot running around the knowe in tight leggings and pixie dust clinging to that damn attractive face of his and flowers dotting his hair and… and Andrew was getting very tired of soaking in the cold baths while he cursed Renee).

While Nicky was a hyperactive, horny pest, Aaron was an even more sullen asshole than usual as he stared at his ‘dead’ phone and sulked, as he bitched every day about being stuck in the knowe, in the Fae realm. Someone had not been pleased to learn that Andrew had slipped free of the Foxhole Court for a short while to retrieve some information from Eden’s Twilight and complained about being left behind, even if he’d only been there for about ten minutes. Someone wasn’t pleased at all to learn that they wouldn’t be returning to the club anytime soon, considering that some of the patrons were willing to break the sanctuary’s long-standing rules in order to grab Neil (and Andrew couldn’t really go there without Neil, not unless he wanted to be miserable the entire time).

Something was going on there, Andrew knew, something that drove Aaron to fidget with his phone, to turn toward the path leading to the mortal world when he wasn’t focused, wasn’t careful. Oh, had someone become attached to another pretty little human who thought Aaron was adorable with his ‘quaint’ way of speaking and ‘old-fashioned’ manners and ooh, did he know his ears were just a bit pointed?

Another pretty little human for Andrew to chase away before Aaron risked everyone at the knowe, before Aaron ended up hurt. When the hell would his brother ever learn?

And then there was Neil, Andrew’s latest promise. Well, it wasn’t so much Neil himself (other than the whole cold bath thing, than the powerful emotions which flowed into Andrew all of the time), but how the rest of the knowe reacted to Neil. It was the damn pixies and Abby fussing over Neil as if he was her long-lost child, which confused the idiot. It was Dan and Matt hovering around Neil when they weren’t busy doing stuff for the knowe, trying to get him to be their friend and trust them some more. It was Seth continuing to be an asshole (and unable to go a day without being hexed), which stoked Neil’s anger and set off flares of pain and dark emotions whenever their path crossed.

Which was how Andrew had tracked down the two of them out in the garden, not far from one of the herb gardens; Seth appeared sickly and face covered in sweat, his back hunched and hands clutched into fists but for once was holding his ground as Ombré and Nuit stood in front of Neil with their fangs bared and the pixies darted about in the air while hissing in anger. The changeling must have realized that since Neil was sworn to Wymack, he couldn’t kill Seth unless Seth physically attacked him first, and not even Seth was that stupid. What a shame.

“-fucking _kitty-cat_ who’ll destroy this whole knowe,” Seth spat at Neil, who stared at him without any expression despite the anger/hate/pain roiling inside of him – him and Andrew. “So do us a favor and go back to your masters already.”

Neil was quiet for a moment then bared his teeth in such a cruel grin which made Seth take an inadvertent step back. “Here for the valerian, aren’t you? I’ve seen goblin fruit withdrawals before, seen how bad it gets for changelings, and know you must be hurting. The herb won’t do you any good.” Neil scoffed a little as a couple of pixies landed on his shoulders. “And people think I’m a fool for eating what was on the Dark Road.” His eyes flickered to Andrew for a moment, so he at least realized that they had an audience.

Seth’s sweaty face grew flushed. “Shut up, you spoiled pureblood bastard! We’re nothing alike! I’m not a freak like you, a pussycat who needs a monster to hide behind!”

“No, you need a drug to accept the fact that I’m more a cat than you are.” Neil hid the fact how much the insult had hurt, and when Seth snarled at the too-accurate jab as well as took a step forward, the pixies rushed at him with shrill yells and flung tiny spears to drive him away; Andrew sent a spirit to join in on the ‘fun’.

Now that the asshole was gone, Neil’s expression crumbled and he sank down to one knee to bury his face against Ombré’s neck. Andrew was quiet as he approached and held out his left hand for Nuit to sniff, and arched an eyebrow when it was licked once as well. “When did you see that stuff with goblin fruit?”

Neil sighed as he raised his head; the pixies had been at it with the flowers in his hair again, and the silver one – Jorea, Andrew had heard Neil call her, and had the impression she was in charge of the knowe’s ‘clan’ – once more settled on the idiot’s shoulder. “At my father’s knowe.” His expression and emotions turned bleak for a moment. “His preferred punishment was blades, but now and then if he wanted to prolong things, to make not only the changeling who had messed up but their loved ones suffer, he would use goblin fruit.”

Use it and then take it away, Andrew surmised. Oh yes, he so looked forward to meeting Neil’s father, the man who had made his only child believe that the Dark Road was a beloved sanctuary compared to other worlds which contained Nathan Wesninski.

Andrew tapped out a cigarette to smoke while he considered that the more he learned about ‘the Butcher’, the more he had to admit that he could see why Neil loved the Dark Road so much. “I’ve never been tempted to try it, me or Aaron or Nicky,” he admitted in an exchange of truths. “Our parents – my mother, Nicky’s father,” how bitter those words were in his mouth, “knew enough about their Fae bloodline to figure out a few simple spells to suppress the magic and took to feeding them to us, especially Tilda.” He shrugged as he lit the stick, and noticed how Neil’s emotions took on a sad yet thoughtful turn as the shadow walker breathed in deep a lungful of smoke. “It taught us to be leery of just drinking anything when it comes to the Fae.” Especially anything that would affect changelings, and then it didn’t take them long to learn the full effects of goblin fruit on anyone not a pureblood – that it was addictive and there wasn’t a cure.

“As if the Fae aren’t cruel enough to changelings, allowing such a thing to exist is an atrocity,” Neil murmured as he closed his eyes for a moment. “I probably shouldn’t have thrown that in Seth’s face.” He didn’t feel too sorry about it, though.

“Why not? It’s the truth and he didn’t care about hurting you.” For a moment Andrew was quiet as he drew in a lungful of smoke and then gave in to the curiosity. “Why does that nickname bother you?” He figured it was best to know before they dealt with the Moriyamas.

Neil flinched at the question, which earned Andrew a scolding from the pixie. Still, Neil chewed at his full bottom lip a little then answered it. “Because… well….” He drew in a deep breath as Ombré whined and Neil gestured at his eyes then his left ear. “At Evermore… a few of the knights… the ones Riko-“ He closed his eyes again as his arms wrapped around his chest, as the gauntlet extended down his hand and up his right forearm even though it was just him, Andrew, the mutts and the pixies in the garden just then; between that and his turbulent emotions, Andrew didn’t need to know what Riko had those knights do to Neil. “’Kitty cat’, they called me,” Neil continued in a hoarse voice. “’Be a good kitty and we won’t pull your claws, won’t-‘” He fell silent again as he shook his head.

“I get it,” Andrew said in a quiet voice as he struggled with the rage seething inside of him, as the spirits yanked up a few of the herbs until he ordered them to still. It had been as he’d suspected, but now he knew for certain, and if he came across any knights who referred to Neil like that? Well, he couldn’t do much while at the High Court, but even a changeling like him would live for a long time. A long time where he could get very inventive on making certain bastards suffer for ever laying their hands on Neil.

“Okay.” Neil opened his eyes and gave Andrew an odd look before he wiped at some of the glowing glitter on his right cheekbone.

Andrew only debated for a second or two before he spoke up. “I can’t stand the word ‘please’,” he said as he looked more at Nuit than Neil; it was enough to feel the idiot’s emotions during his confession. “I was told if I said them enough, he would stop.”

He heard Neil’s sharp inhale, could feel the growing horror as Neil – not always an idiot – slowly put things together, but he didn’t feel pity which kept him from turning around and walking away. No, he felt understanding and a rush of anger, so he kept staring at Nuit who looked up at him with those shiny black eyes which were much too intelligent for an animal.

“He… how old were you?”

“Seven.” Back when the spirits were barely murmurs in Andrew’s head, back when he’d been powerless. But they’d grown powerful after that as Andrew’s magic worked free, as it managed to find a way to feed them enough to keep him safe in one way or another well before the time that most Fae – pureblood or not – reached the age when they could properly tap into it. All because of Williams.

They were both quiet as Andrew finished off the cigarette; Neil didn’t ask any questions, didn’t ask about Williams or more about the whole ‘please’ thing (probably because he knew what it was like to be on the other end of a sadist’s power game, knew just how little those sadists could be trusted), but he stood there close to Andrew as his emotions quieted down, as a sense of peace and trust settled in him.

At least until Renee showed up with a small basket and some pruning shears, a smile on her face as she waved at him. And then Neil felt uncomfortable and a little sad as he made some excuse about having to help out the pixies then slipped through the shadows to another part of the knowe before Andrew could blink, something the idiot had been doing a lot the last couple of days whenever Renee showed up.

“Did you do something to piss him off?” Andrew asked as he dropped the cigarette butt to the ground.

“Me?” She appeared a bit offended at the question. “Not that I’m aware of, he usually is fine to talk to me when we’re alone.”

Hmm, so it was just when Andrew and Renee were together that Neil was acting like more than an idiot than usual. About to leave as well, Andrew paused when Renee called out his name. “What?”

Kneeling on the ground as she clipped some comfrey, she motioned to the herb garden in front of her. “Have you noticed anything different lately?”

He sighed as he rubbed at the back of his neck, suddenly feeling tired and wanting to be alone. “Look, puddle girl, I’m not in the mood for twenty questions.” He had to pack for the next day, track down an idiot shadow walker, make sure Kevin wasn’t passed out drunk in the library, check in with Bee – and that was only at the top of his list.

“That would be a ‘no’,” Renee sighed in disappointment. “Draw some energy from the earth, would you?” She gave him a level look as he gazed back at her, and after sensing that she wasn’t going to let the matter drop, Andrew huffed as he did just that – he could use the energy boost.

Only instead of the equivalent of a cup of coffee, he got more like a double-shot of espresso – he’d never felt such a strong ‘jolt’ of energy from a quick draw of the knowe. “What the fuck?”

Renee nodded in satisfaction and moved on to the rue. “Yes, I noticed it the other day with my water pools, and Dan commented on it to me yesterday.” She paused in collecting herbs to give Andrew a serious look. “As much as we can tell… it might in part have to do with the pixies. You do realize that their clan has at least doubled in the past week, that there’s more of them now that they’ve reclaimed a good bit of the knowe.”

Since Neil had helped them reclaim the gardens. No wonder Andrew was seeing more of them flitting about, especially around Neil. But what about the knowe being locked down? “That’s not much of an explanation,” he said as he folded his arms over his chest.

Renee sighed again as she folded her hands on her lap. “Pixies are Unseelie, and while some live in urban settings, their preferred habitat is greenery, is a bit of earth and vegetation.” She motioned around her for a moment with her right hand before it settled back in her lap. “All of Maeb’s children are tied to nature in some way when you think of it – to the elements or nature or aspects of life.” Her expression hardened as a glint of gold sparked in her dark eyes for a moment. “We’re considered ‘unsightly’ or beasts because of that tie to nature, considered evil because nature isn’t always kind. Thunderstorms, squalls, blizzards and tsunamis leave destruction in their wake, the ocean takes as well as give. Death gives meaning to life, shadows make light all the brighter.”

“Yes, yes, the Unseelie are slandered and misunderstood.” Andrew struggled to not roll his eyes just then – he didn’t give a shit about the whole Seelie/Unseelie debate when all of the Fae were bastards in his eyes, when all of them could be cruel and unfeeling regardless of their bloodlines. “Your point here?”

Renee’s eyes narrowed as she gave the sharp shears by her knees a considering look for a couple of seconds, then she let out a slow breath. “Many Fae dismiss pixies because they’re small, they aren’t… well, I guess you could say ‘glamorous’ or the most powerful. But they’re in all the knowes, they can thrive in the mortal world and there’s a reason for that.” She once again motioned to the garden. “They may not be the most powerful when it comes to fighting, but they are powerful in their own right, and they make a knowe thrive. Why do you think Wymack allows them here?” she asked with her head cocked to the side.

“Because the man is a sentimental fool,” Andrew scoffed, but he grew thoughtful as he took in the lush plants, the blooming rose bushes and rowan – Renee was right, the gardens were even more plentiful than they’d been a couple of weeks ago. “The pixies are behind all of this?”

“In part.” Renee picked up the shears and resumed her clippings. “But it’s because us Unseelie have a new sovereign, because the pixies have recognized him and he’s given them his favor.”

Andrew was still for a moment as the meaning of her words sank in, and then he was looming above her while she looked up at him without alarm. “ _How do you know about Neil? Did Wymack tell you_?” Anger throbbed inside of him at the thought of Wymack or Abby letting slip that secret to Renee, while the torc pulsed around his neck as its magic tore into the naiad.

All she did was blink as the truth spilled past her lips, appearing not to fight it at all. “No one told me, I figured it out myself.” She drew in a deep breath as she set the shears aside again. “I’m Unseelie,” she chided Andrew while she tucked back a strand of pale hair falling onto her face. “I’m Unseelie, and I grew up idolizing Maeb, you see.” For a moment her dark eyes grew unfocused. “About the queen of my race, the mother of both my bloodlines who stood up to Titania, who protected her children from the Seelie and the mortals.” She narrowed her eyes at Andrew and shook her head. “I recognized the gauntlet when I saw it, and I knew the importance of the Dark Road from all the stories I read about Maeb. I’ve also heard the theory about the Three leaving heirs behind.”

It was then that she appeared guilty as she glanced aside. “If I’d thought about you being Oberon’s heir, I never would have suggested the bond between the two of you, but that was a surprise, I must admit.” She gave a pointed stare to the torc around his neck while the voice inside of Andrew’s head murmured ‘ _truth_ ’.

“What, didn’t think I had it in me?”

Renee shrugged as she organized the clippings in the basket. “You never seemed to care about anything, to be honest. I thought Oberon’s heir would… though now that I think about it, Oberon never was the most involved king, was he?”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew didn’t know if he should be insulted or not, but settled for bemused. “And who have you told about Neil?”

He didn’t need to make any threats, not when Renee knew him better than almost anyone else in the knowe. She held his gaze with a solemn expression while she spoke. “No one, since I suspect it’s not something he wants confirmed until he’s willing to talk about it. Or you.”

“No,” Andrew agreed, and was grateful when the torc let him know that Renee spoke the truth again. “Though you said he’s affecting the knowe?”

“Yes.” Renee’s brow furrowed as she glanced around at all the greenery. “The knowe is growing stronger with him here, with the pixies sinking their magic in deeper and everything else. Dan and Matt can feel it, they’re responding to him as well, and it’s clear he’s unsettling Seth.”

Seth was about to be permanently settled into a grave if he kept picking at Neil’s past at Evermore. “Warn me if they’re close to figuring it out,” he said as he prepared to leave, deciding that she’d said her peace.

“It’s not just them,” Renee called out. “It’s Allison, too.”

“But Allison isn’t Unseelie,” Andrew said over his shoulder.

“No, she’s one of yours.” Renee hummed a little as she collected some valerian while Andrew felt torn between surprise and wanting to throttle the woman. “Neil isn’t the only person unsettling Seth, so is Allison.” She looked up at Andrew once more. “Allison is feeling stronger, feeling more… hmm, I guess one could say willing to take on challenges she once avoided. She’s pushing him about the goblin fruit, about seeking out Bee and Abby to find a cure for it.”

“There isn’t a cure for it,” Andrew pointed out with much derision for anyone who would become addicted to such a thing on purpose.

“Not that we know about, but then again, no one suspected that a shadow walker could slip into any knowe, did they?” Renee gave him a sweet smile at that for a moment before she frowned at the orderly line of herbs in front of her. “One doesn’t know if one never tries, and Allison feels that there won’t be a future for them if he’s addicted to the fruit.”

No, not when it was shortening his already dubious changeling lifespan as it was. “But isn’t that a good thing for you?” he asked as he toyed with the vial of pixie dust tucked beneath his left armband while Renee shot him a withering look. “You’ll never get anywhere with Allison if she’s stuck in that dramatic mess with the asshole.”

Renee didn’t appear surprised that he’d figured out her crush on the Valkyrie. “Nothing will happen until she resolves things with Seth in one way or another.” Then she gave him a sweet smile laced with a hint of malice, something she managed to pull off with perfection. “How are things with you and Neil, hmm? You seem so close these days.”

He had a spirit pick up the basket and dump its contents on her head, which she blithely ignored save to brush aside the herbs clinging to her face. “Don’t go there,” he warned. “Don’t.”

Her expression turned contrite as she held up her right hand as if in abeyance. “Andrew… I’m sorry, that was too much, was me reacting to your comment about Allison. But it was the truth in that you’re the one whom Neil lets in the most.”

Yes, and Andrew wasn’t going to ruin that by telling the idiot that he wanted to blow him, that he wanted to pull Neil close and break him in the best way – except Neil wouldn’t think of it like that. Neil would think of Evermore and what had been forced upon him there.

“Worry about your own-“ He frowned as he felt panic and confusion cut across the bond, along with a bit of anger.

“Is something wrong?”

“It’s Neil,” he said as he sent out a couple of spirits to find the shadow walker. “He’s not happy right now.”

Renee sighed as she twirled a sprig of valerian between her fingers. “Oh dear, I believe Allison might be living up to her threat to forcibly dress him for tomorrow.”

Wonderful. Andrew sent another spirit toward the rooms which Neil rarely used as he left the garden, and had just reached the main building when it reported back to him that yes, Neil was there and being given a forced lesson in fashion of all things. The idiot could just escape through the shadows, but Abby was there so he seemed to be suffering in silence. Make that mostly silence. Okay, he was complaining, as Andrew found out when he finally arrived.

“-why all of this matters, I can just use a glamour,” Neil was backed into a corner with the shadow wolves in front of him but not baring their teeth and the pixies hovering about his head as he glared at the pile of clothes on the bed. Abby held something dark orange in her arms while Allison appeared peeved at the moment and was tapping her right foot against the floor.

“And I keep telling you, a glamour is a sure sign of a… a _plebian_ ,” she said with utter distaste. “You are Natha-“

“Neil!”

“Fine,” she sniffed. “You’re Neil, the son of Mary Hartford, the daughter of Firstborns Elia and Silas, the heir to Night’s Haven and Shadow’s Edge, the son of Firstborn Nathan Wesninski. You are undiluted magic, are Maeb’s blood in a manner few can claim anymore, and I won’t allow you before the North American High Court looking like a ragamuffin!” She stomped her right foot for added emphasis while Jorea twittered something and took to tugging on Neil’s hair.

“I….” Neil sent Andrew a beseeching look while his hands twisted together. “I let them cut my hair, isn’t that enough?”

“She has a point,” Andrew agreed, and ignored the rush of betrayal from the idiot. “They’re going to look to tear you down and paint you as a lunatic, so don’t go giving them any ammunition.”

Neil’s shoulders slumped upon hearing that, and after rubbing Nuit’s ears for a couple of seconds, he sighed. “What do I have to wear?” He gave Andrew a nervous glance. “Not those… those jeans, right?”

Andrew fought not to react to the mental image of how Neil had appeared in skinny jeans that one night, while Abby smiled in relief and Allison in triumph. “No, I went through what you brought back from the Dark Road and picked out the best stuff as well as had the Brownies make a few things for you.” For a moment her expression was a bit envious. “Those things are really good quality, we just need what fits you best and goes with your complexion.” While Andrew watched on, she pointed out some outfits that were some dark leggings and pants, several finely made leather, suede and cloth jerkins which would hug Neil’s lean build, and shirts which weren’t the overlarge ones he seemed to favor.

Added to that were some newer item in the knowe’s white and orange color scheme – nothing too bright, since it was clear that Neil preferred dark colors which allowed him to blend in to the shadows. Allison commented on which items went with which, and which ones should be worn to certain events. Neil had a glazed look on his face during it all, but Andrew would remember everything and step in to make sure that the idiot was presentable.

“All right, let’s see if-“

“No,” Andrew told her, having a feeling where she was going and already feeling Neil’s panic. “They should fit.” The Brownies were good at what they did and there was no way Neil would suffer through changing into things in front of an audience.

“But-“

“He’s right, it should be fine,” Abby added as she shot Neil a sympathetic look. “You’ve done an excellent job, Allison.”

The Valkyrie sniffed a little as she flicked her fingers in the air. “I do what I can with what I have. Don’t embarrass me, Neil,” she said before she spun around on her heeled boots and left the room.

Abby approached Neil and gave him an encouraging smile before reaching out in a slow manner to cup his left cheek for a few seconds; Andrew watched on with interest to see how Neil allowed the contact, felt how Neil was a little surprised but wasn’t disgusted, just a little confused as warm affection bubbled up in him for the healer. “You’ll do well tomorrow. The whole knowe is supporting you, and you’re so much stronger now. They won’t be able to touch you.”

Neil bowed his head a little and took a deep breath. “I hope you’re right.”

“Andrew, get over here and convince him,” Abby called out as she stepped aside. “And make sure he comes by to eat sometime tonight.” She smiled at Andrew in passing and closed the door behind her.

Andrew gave Jorea a cold look, but the pixie remained on Neil’s shoulder even as the mutts spread out in the room to lie down. “Are you freaking out about tomorrow? Pulling a Kevin on me?”

That startled a weak laugh from Neil and made him smile at Andrew, the expression tiny but still there. “I don’t want to see my father, I know he’s going to do his best to hurt me, to make me bleed one way or another because I dared to run away and disobey him for so long.” Neil shook his head when Andrew tried to speak, his emotions so twisted just then that it was difficult to make sense of the jumble. “But I’m not going to let him or the Moriyamas win.” Determination slowly overcame the others as he held Andrew’s gaze. “I can handle pain, it’s something they all taught me very well,” he said without any self-pity, “so they’re not getting what they want that way.”

/ _Truth_./

“They’re never getting what they want,” Andrew swore as he slipped his right hand around Neil’s neck to cup the idiot’s warm nape; Neil shivered a little but it wasn’t out of fear or revulsion. Andrew’s heartbeat raced when he felt trust and a faint, almost imperceptible pulse of pleasure. “They may land a few blows, but you let me stand between you and them, do you understand?”

“But-“

“No,” Andrew said as his fingers curled more around Neil’s nape. “Me and the mutts, we’ll deal with those pricks, it’s our job. You just do the impossible and prove to the High Court that you’re sane. Sane-ish. Whatever.”

Neil sputtered out something in old Fae but didn’t pull away. It wasn’t until Jorea babbled in that shrill voice of hers that Neil finally reacted and Andrew dropped his hand. “Uhm, she said that the pixies will be there, too.” Neil turned to look at her with wide eyes while Andrew internally groaned.

“How delightful. If you’re done freaking out, I’m off to find Kevin.”

“Okay.” Neil gave him another slight smile then went over to pack up the clothes, so Andrew went ahead to complete that long list of chores he had to do before they left the next day. At least Kevin was only mildly tipsy in the library as he finished researching things, and was easily sobered up in Bee’s lab so he could make a few spells that they might need. Then it was another review session with Wymack and Dan to make certain that they were prepared for the High Court, a quick visit to Abby’s lab that Neil had stopped by to eat (he had), then to check in on Nicky and Aaron before Andrew spent the evening packing for himself (and enjoying a bit of much-needed whiskey).

Morning came, and after dressing in black pants with the ankle boots he’s found on the Dark Road and a finely made black linen shirt, Andrew grabbed his bags then left his room. He had to leave behind several of his knives and his staff since the High Court was ‘neutral’ ground and the penalty of fighting there would make the potion he’d suffered through the last few decades a joke, but a few ‘small’ items would be allowed.

He could do a lot of damage with those ‘small’ items, his spirits and his magic.

He went to fetch Kevin, who was also dressed in black but with more elaborate clothes, the tunic once again festooned with straps and silver buckles, the pants leather and the boots knee-high. Andrew rolled his eyes at the prima-donna and was surprised that Kevin’s breath was free of alcohol for once, then nearly gagged at the amount of cologne which Nicky had drenched himself in that morning. Nicky sported a white belt and bright orange lining in his boots which were folded down at the knees to show his support for the Foxhole Court, but otherwise was also dressed in black, while Aaron’s outfit was similar to Andrew’s save for the dark orange pouch on his belt – a gift from Abby.

Everyone else was out in the courtyard and dressed for the High Court with their bags resting by their feet. Allison was in a dark orange and white dress of spider-silk while an uncomfortable looking Seth stood beside her in dark brown and white with an orange jerkin. Renee wore a white dress which darkened to orange at the hem, Dan a white tunic laced tight to her athletic build with orange laces and dark brown pants, Matt with a similar form-fitting tunic hemmed in orange and dark pants, Abby and Bee in orange dresses with white embroidery – flowers for the healer and various runes for the Leannan Sidhe. Wymack wore light brown with an orange jerkin embroidered with the Foxhole Court crest on the upper left side of his chest – the paw print surrounded by words in old Fae which Kevin had told him meant ‘we don’t surrender, we fight on’.

“Did we lose an idiot so soon?” Andrew asked Renee as he set his bags down, ready to send out the spirits to search for Neil.

“I felt him in the pools a little while ago, I’m sure he’s still getting ready,” she assured him. While she spoke, Andrew felt along the bond and didn’t sense anything too bad, just consternation and a low level of anxiety. Meanwhile, Wymack came over to the two of them.

“Where is he? We need to leave soon.”

“Probably hiding from the hideous sight of all this orange,” Andrew said as he pointedly looked away from Wymack’s jerkin. “What happened to the sanity defense?”

“You shitty little demon,” Wymack ground out, “it’s called taking pride in-“

Right then Neil slipped from the shadows, surrounded by four shadow wolves and several pixies. Abby, Matt and Renee called out to him in greeting, while Nicky let out a wolf-whistle and Allison gave a slow clap at his appearance.

He’d dressed in the outfit that the Valkyrie had picked out for him, in the soft, knee-high black suede boots and dark grey pants and shirt, the dark orange jerkin which made his hair all the brighter and reminded everyone that he was a part of the Foxhole Court. All of the clothes showed off his lean form, made him look a little taller than he was (at least until he stood next to someone), and his hair had been pulled back from his face in a myriad of tiny braids embedded with what looked to be sparkling stones and lilac blossoms, along with a spiky white flower or two. Considering all of the glowing dust in his hair and on his face, Andrew would guess it had been the pixies who were responsible for the new look – especially since Jorea appeared rather pleased.

Wymack gaped at Neil for a couple of seconds then rubbed his face. “What the fuck, Neil?”

Neil winced at that. “They were, uhm, insistent.” He went to run a hand through his hair then stopped in time.

“He looks great,” Abby declared as she gave Wymack a smack on the left arm.

He looked as if the pixies had just staked their claim on the new Unseelie sovereign, the opportunistic flying pests that they were, Andrew thought as he went over to the idiot. “Very subtle.” Between the pixies, the shadow wolves, the damn ears and those eyes, and the gauntlet shining bright on Neil’s right wrist, anyone who had a clue about the whole ‘heir’ thing would figure out Neil’s link to Maeb within seconds.

“Have you tried to argue with over a dozen pixies?” Neil asked in an aggrieved tone. “They were _very_ persistent.” He gave Jorea a wary glance then sighed. “Are we going or what?”

Wymack spoke up again at that. “Wait, all of you?” He glowered as he took in the new shadow wolves – Andrew thought they were Danseur and Pilier – and the pixies. “This is serious, kid, this isn’t-“ He started coughing when Arrant, dressed in an elaborate violet outfit which matched his hair, buzzed by and blasted the man with pixie dust.

“They’re all coming,” Neil said in a weary voice.

“I think they’ll prove helpful,” Renee said as she came over to stand by Neil. “People don’t usually pay much attention to pixies, after all.” She gave a polite nod to Jorea, who nodded back.

“Renee has a good point,” Bee added. “We can use every advantage possible while at the High Court.”

Wymack finally stopped sputtering and glared at the three of them. “As long as they don’t jinx half the damn Court,” he snapped, then sighed. “As long as the High Court can’t prove they’re jinxing everyone,” he clarified. “This is a fucking disaster and we haven’t even left yet, what the hell am I thinking?”

“Look on the bright side, Neil’s the only one whose sanity is being questioned at the moment,” Andrew offered up as he picked up his bags.

That didn’t seem to appease Wymack any as his glare increased. “Kevin, ready the damn teleport spell while everyone else shuts the fuck up.”

Someone was grouchy that morning, but after making certain that Aaron and Nicky were prepared and that Kevin seemed confident about the spell, Andrew went over to Neil; the mutts parted enough so he could stand next to the idiot, who had grown nervous since they were about to leave the knowe. Neil sidled closer to him until they were almost touching, a couple of pixies hovering around Andrew while the spirits settled as close to Neil as they dared (they were getting a little better about approaching the shadow walker these days, either because of the bond between Andrew and Neil or the fact that Neil hadn’t ‘drained’ one of them in a while).

Kevin had everyone cluster together, with Renee and Abby being the only two who were willing to gather near Neil (and the shadow wolves), then activated the teleportation spell that took them to the High Court. Andrew found it interesting that he preferred traveling through shadows, as Kevin’s spells felt ‘harsher’, made his insides twist more and affected his balance for a couple of seconds, and he noticed that Neil felt much the same way.

They had arrived in a large courtyard lined with guards dressed in pale green and white, the floor a white marble laced with gold and silver veins and white trellises upon which green ivy bearing white fragrant flowers grew with abundance. A pretty image, save for the fact that the guards were armed with swords at their waists and halberds in their right hands, and a grim-faced Tuatha de Danann dressed in an elaborate pale green tunic over white leggings stood there as if waiting for them.

“Good morning to you, David Wymack of the Foxhole Court,” he called out with a slight nod of his head, his silver hair gleaming in the sunlight. “Be welcome here, you and those sworn to you.” He appeared to look for something, his dark brown eyes widening when he caught sight of Neil. “Be aware that while here before the High Court of North America, you are sworn to abide by its rules, to accept its judgments and to set aside any private grudges or feuds.” When no one spoke up, he nodded again. “Nathaniel Wesninski, you are here to face judgment before the High Court.”

Neil murmured a little, probably a complaint about the use of his ‘old’ name, but otherwise was quiet as he stepped forward. The Tuatha de Danann’s face blanched when he noticed the shadow wolves, which had been hidden from sight by Matt and Dan. “Those… you… why are they here?”

“They go everywhere with him,” Wymack explained, his expression and tone much put-upon. “Haven’t been able to figure out a way to separate them yet, so good luck with that.”

That earned him a displeased frown. “This is a sanctuary, is-“

“It won’t be a problem if no one bothers me,” Neil said as he rested a hand on Ombré’s head – his right hand, with its gleam of silver around his wrist. “If everyone follows the rules, then they won’t do anything but follow me around.” He gave the man a bland look while Nuit ‘smiled’.

The Tuatha de Danann studied Neil for several seconds before he bowed his head. “I am Tadeas, let me show you to your rooms.” He motioned for them to follow, and after a few steps one of the guards stepped forward, another Tuatha de Danann, to look them over for weapons. Andrew stuck close to Neil since neither man wanted to come near the shadow wolves, though the guard did a double-take when he noticed Neil’s gauntlet; Andrew was grateful that the high collar of his shirt covered the torc.

The guard also gave a respectful nod of the head to Kevin, which Kevin accepted as if it was his due.

Soon enough they were inside the large, palace-like building of the High Court, with its white gleaming floors and walls which made Andrew’s eyes and teeth ache; he might joke about the Foxhole Court’s color scheme, but the occasional burst of orange was nothing compared to this. Also, the other Fae could sneer all they wanted about the Foxhole being a ‘simple’ knowe, but he much preferred the wood paneled hallways and woolen tapestries to nearly being blinded by so much blatant wealth on display.

He could feel Neil’s growing anxiety and discomfort with each step, noticed the way that the mutts were alert and pressed close to the shadow walker, how some of the pixies had vanished upon their arrival, and so wasn’t surprised when one of the spirits he’d sent out to check the knowe came rushing back to him in a panic. Wasn’t surprised when they came across a small group of people standing around as if waiting for them in one of the foyers where the many hallways of the High Court intersected.

Hatred, fear and panic flared inside of Neil as his expression went blank, as Ombré and Danseur pressed against his legs while Nuit and Pilier stepped forward with their fangs exposed and ears flat against their sleek heads. As Jorea and Arrant launched themselves into the air while hissing, the other pixies hovering behind Neil’s back and sides.

Andrew recognized Riko and an uncomfortable-looking Jean, both dressed in black and red, and assumed the older looking Tengu must be Tetsuji. That left the Sidhe dressed in dark brown and gold with the dark red hair and skin a shade darker than Neil’s to be Nathan Wesninski – he had the same pale blue eyes as well, but his face wasn’t as sharp as Neil’s, his body as lean or short.

His lips bore the cruel smile that Andrew had seen on Neil’s the day before, and his eyes were lacking anything but hatred as he looked at his son. Beside him stood Lola and a man who resembled her somewhat, though taller and more heavyset, who shared a smug grin as they watched the Foxhole Court approach.

“And here I thought Riko and Lola were exaggerating things, Junior,” Nathan said, his deep voice thick with derision as he eyed Neil. “What did that bitch do to you?”

Neil’s jaw clenched as rage and hatred tore through Andrew, as he appeared to be struggling to control his temper; it reflected in how Nuit and Pilier snapped their fangs and snarled, in how the pixies hissed like vicious snakes ready to strike but they didn’t attack – to attack would play into the bastard’s hands. So while Neil trembled not to give in to his temper, to allow his ‘guards’ to lash out and tear into the prick who had hurt him so very much, Andrew reached over to gently grasp the back of Neil’s neck.

“Don’t goad one of my people,” Wymack snapped as he took a defensive position in front of Nathan Wesninski as if he had any chance of standing up to the Butcher; Dan and Matt were quick to flank him, while Allison faced off against Riko with Renee right beside her. “You dared to send one of yours to my knowe to stir up shit, it’s not going to happen here.”

Nathan gave Wymack a disdainful look before waving him aside. “Answer me, Junior.”

Neil shuddered as he shook his head, his hands clenched tight in Ombré’s and Danseur’s fur, the gauntlet once more spread along his arm in its full defensive mode.

“Answer me,” Nathan commanded as the scent of fresh blood and heated metal filled the air, as the feel of oppressive magic made Seth curse and Nicky cry out, yet all Neil did was glare at his father with those unnatural eyes of his almost all blue, the pupils narrowed to thin slits and a cruel smile of his own on his lips.

“He doesn’t have to say shit to you,” Andrew said as he gave Neil’s nape a gentle squeeze. “Not to an abusive prick.”

“I think it would be best-“

Nathan cut off Tadeas as he turned to look at Andrew. “This is between me and my boy, not some mongrel interfering where he shouldn’t.”

“He isn’t your anything,” Andrew declared. “Not anymore.”

“He’s my blood,” Nathan insisted as he motioned at Neil. “Something a nameless runt like you wouldn’t understand, _Doe_.”

Oh, someone had done their homework, hadn’t they? But before Andrew could respond to that, Tadeas shoved his way between the two groups.

“There’s no fighting allowed, _any_ type of fighting!” He risked giving Nathan a cold look as guards entered from three different hallways. “Your rooms are in a different wing of the court, so I suggest you return to them.”

Nathan sneered at the man then gave Neil one last look. “You know your place, Junior. Return to it soon, or else.”

“Perhaps he likes being on his knees,” Riko taunted as he turned around to leave. “And is looking for an excuse to be put back on them.”

Andrew had to hold on to Neil’s nape to keep him in place while Neil let loose a string of old Fae, thankfully muttered beneath his breath. Still, Nathan laughed as he walked away, with a smirking Lola right on his heels while the other Fae – Neil had said something about her brother – hesitated a moment to give Andrew an assessing look. Tetsuji paused for a moment, too, to regard Andrew with his dark eyes before he followed his nephew and a silent Jean.

Once they were all gone, Andrew let go of Neil. “Your father is a prick.”

That earned him a harsh laugh from the idiot. “It’s been remarked a time or two.” He rubbed at his eyes then bent down to hug Nuit and Pilier when they returned to him. “This is going to be so much fun.”

Andrew didn’t say anything to that, just grabbed onto Neil’s sleeve to pull him along with everyone as Tadeas showed them to where they were staying.

There were guards lining the hallways, probably to ensure the ‘peace’ was kept. Considering that the Butcher was at the court, Andrew wasn’t certain there were enough guards available, so when he noticed that the rooms were meant to be shared, he grabbed Neil’s sleeve again and had the spirits push Kevin toward them while he had other spirits push Aaron and Nicky to the rooms next door – farther from the entrance to the hall.

“You two go in there, we’ll take this one,” he commanded – and felt Neil’s spike of confusion/fear.

“Why?” Neil once again gripped at the mutts’ napes, but they didn’t react to his panic.

“Because I want my two headaches together,” Andrew told him while Kevin stood there rubbing his left hand as if it pained him. “You can have the bedroom, Kevin and I will sleep elsewhere,” he told the idiot.

“Hey!” Kevin objected. “Why do I-“ his eyes went wide when a spirit blocked his mouth.

“For once it’s not about you,” Andrew told him in a quiet voice, then gave Nicky and Aaron a bland look. “Move.”

“Come on,” Aaron told Nicky. “Someone is in full domineering mode, it’s making me sick.”

“I actually think it’s really hot,” Nicky said, which made Aaron gag. “Except for, you know, the whole cousin thing.”

“You make me sick, too.” The two of them entering their rooms cut off the rest of Aaron’s bitching; Renee waved as she chose the room opposite of Andrew’s, which she seemed to be sharing with Bee, and everyone else partnered up as expected – Wymack and Abby, Matt and Dan, and Allison with Seth. That left Andrew with his two ‘headaches’, and after staring at Andrew for a couple of seconds as if looking for something, Neil walked into the rooms with the shadow wolves while the pixies flew ahead.

Andrew frowned at that and stalked forward with a frantic Kevin at his heels, then remembered about the spirit which he waved free. “Why does Neil get the bed?”

“Because he’s not a coward. Show some spine for once and you can have it,” Andrew said as he set his bags down on the thick carpet; the room was lavish in the style of the knowe, was spacious with tapestries on the wall and comfortable looking couches and chairs, with delicate looking tables and lamps. The bedroom was much the same with two canopy beds, a couple of chaise chairs and some small dressers.

Neil glanced around and then shook his head. “You and Kevin can take the beds, I’m fine with the floor.” He motioned to the mutts while Kevin sighed in relief. “Just give me a blanket or two.”

“You’re not sleeping out in the gardens or trees or your usual bullshit,” Andrew warned. “We stick together, all of us.” He included Kevin on that, especially since the coward had just broken out his flask.

“I figured that,” Neil muttered as he set his bags down in the corner of the room, then opened the French doors which led out to the gardens so the pixies could fly around. There was the scent of roses and old leaves, so Andrew assumed that he was warding the doors. “What do we do now?”

Andrew looked over at Kevin, since he was the closest thing to an expert they had at the moment. “Uhm, they shouldn’t start anything until tomorrow at the earliest, so do our best not to run into Riko or Nathan, I’d say,” Kevin offered up. “There’s usually a lot of social functions at these things, since people from so many courts arrive.”

How fun, especially when Neil was such a social butterfly and Andrew a people person. “Yes, we’re all about being social.”

“I just wanted to stay on the Dark Road,” Neil muttered as he sat down on one of the chaise lounges with Ombré curled up next to him. “No parties or stupid teas on the Dark Road.”

The idiot had a point, but Andrew wasn’t about to humor him just then. “We’ll put a pretty bow on your collar, little fox, you’ll be a big hit with all of the guests.” That earned him a rude gesture and a mix of annoyance/amusement, so Andrew left him to play with the mutts for a little while and gave the rooms a thorough investigation.

He’d just determined that there weren’t any hexes or spells anywhere (and Kevin had somehow managed to charm the knowe’s Brownie staff to send a huge basket to their room loaded with vodka and whiskey bottles as well as fruit and baked goods – Andrew wondered if it was something similar to Neil and pixies) when there was a loud banging on the door. Neil paused in munching on the fruit he’d brought along for himself while Kevin lowered the bottle of vodka from his lips as Andrew glared at both of them to indicate that he was the one who’d answer the door.

He brushed the pastry crumbs from his hands (if it was a Seelie thing, Kevin and Brownies, Andrew was fine with it as those apple tarts had been delicious) and headed to the door with Nuit on his heels, only to open it and find a strange man glowering at him on the other side. “Out of the fucking way,” the Fae told him, his deep voice possessing what sounded to be a British accent, and made to push his way into the room only to be brought up short by Nuit – by Nuit baring a mouthful of very sharp, white and impressive fangs.

“Fuck me,” the man breathed out as he stared at the shadow wolf, only to gaze into the room behind Andrew. “Nathaniel, come out here!”

“Go away,” Andrew ordered as he had a spirit shove the man back from the door – except one second the man was there, and the next he wasn’t. Only he didn’t disappear entirely, he stepped out of the shadows and _into_ the common room and looked around, clearly searching for Neil.

As Andrew slipped a knife free and Nuit lunged for the bastard, Neil slipped from the shadows himself, his eyes widening as he caught sight of the Fae. He called out in old Fae to the shadow wolves, which made Nuit come to a halt just shy of the other shadow walker and Andrew flip the blade between his fingertips before he threw it.

About to ask Neil if he knew the man, Andrew blinked as the shadow walker lunged toward Neil to give him a hug, only to yelp when Jorea did something – probably stabbed him. Considering the fact that Neil had flinched at the embrace, his emotions a mix of surprise/confusion/panic/heartache, Andrew was proud of the flying pest for once.

“The fuck?” the shadow walker spat out as he glared at the pixies now hovering around Neil in a protective manner. “Nathaniel, what the fuck?”

“Hi, Uncle Stuart.” Neil summoned a weak smile for the man and waved Nuit over to his side.

Meanwhile, Kevin sidled over to Andrew, the bottle of vodka clenched in his right hand. “Stuart Hatford, Scáth Sidhe, Neil’s uncle,” he mostly whispered, as if Andrew couldn’t figure that out for himself. Now that he saw them standing together, Andrew could pick out the similarities – the lean, short builds, the same full bottom lips, the narrow, long-fingered hands, the fine eyebrows.

“Bloody hell, I’d heard the rumors but I didn’t believe it. You let the Dark Road claim you.” Neil flinched at that and reached out to pet Nuit, which drew Stuart’s attention to his right wrist. Upon seeing the gauntlet, the Fae’s face paled and he shook his head as he spoke in a rush of old Fae which made Neil flinch again and the panic flare anew.

When he fell silent, Neil retorted in the same language, his jaw stuck out in a stubborn angle and a hint of red on his cheeks as anger ate through the panic while Andrew nudged Kevin in the side and nodded at the two shadow walkers. However, before a frowning Kevin could interpret, Stuart spun around and stalked toward them – toward Andrew.

“He says he’s not coming with me, that he’s already sworn and you’re going to keep him safe,” he told Andrew while his hands clenched into fists as if to prevent him from grabbing onto something – be it Andrew or a weapon. “He’s being a bloody fool because a runt like you can’t do shit against the people who’ll be coming after him.”

/… _not truth_ ,/ the torc said, and Andrew didn’t appreciate its hesitancy, the traitorous piece of metal.

“You don’t know what I can do,” Andrew informed the bastard. “Now get the fuck out of our rooms.”

Stuart snorted at that. “He’s not like you, he’s not some common changeling or useless Seelie who doesn’t even know his own father-“

Neil let out a harsh string of old Fae at that as his anger burned through Andrew, while Kevin straightened up and joined in as well with an uncommon light in his bright green eyes.

“-he’s a Hatford and a pureblooded Unseelie and he’s coming home with me, where he belongs,” Stuart insisted. “Go fetch your lord, who never should have made Nathaniel swear to him in the first place, not when he’s _my_ heir and he has his own knowe waiting for him.”

“I’m not going anywhere, dammit!” Neil shouted as he slashed his right hand through the air, the gauntlet extended once more. “Listen to me!”

“This is for your own good, kiddo,” Stuart said as he made a shooing motion at Andrew. “You’ll understand once we get to Shadow’s Edge.”

“But he has to stay here for the High Court,” Kevin argued while Andrew wondered if he could get away with a few stabs and blame it on Stuart being an annoying fuck. “We’re arguing the-“

“It’s a case in front of the _North American_ High Court – he’s a Hatford, and his knowes are in Europe. No fucking jurisdiction, in other words. Now come on, Nathaniel.” Stuart made to reach for Neil, who had come over to stand by Andrew, but stopped when Pilier snapped at him. “Fucking hell, I’m helping him,” he yelled at the shadow wolf.

“No, you’re not,” Andrew said as he rubbed at the torc hidden beneath his shirt. “ _Why are you here? What do you want with Neil?_ ”

“Don’t tell me-“ Stuart’s grey eyes went wide as he stuttered for a moment, his gaze flickering back and forth between Andrew and Neil before it settled on Andrew. “I want to keep him safe, he’s all I have left of Mary. I have to get him away from here before more people realize he’s Maeb’s he-“ Much like Lola, he tried to stifle the words, that time by clamping his hands over his mouth to the point that he bit into his fingers.

Seeing his uncle struggle to keep from finishing the sentence, Neil shook his head. “They know about me, it’s all right.”

Stuart’s expression hardened upon hearing that, his bloodstained lips pressed into a thin line. “All the more reason for you to come with me, dammit.”

Neil felt so tired just then as he gazed at his uncle before he sighed. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m staying.” That was all he said before he used the shadows to slip away, but judging from the lack of pain in Andrew’s chest and how Nuit and Pilier took to standing in front of the doorway to the bedroom, Andrew would guess that Neil was hiding in there.

“Dammit, Nathaniel!” Stuart shouted after the idiot before he once more turned toward Andrew. “I don’t know how you did that little trick back there, but you’ll need more than that to keep that bastard Nathan away from my nephew. Him and the rest of the older Fae once they get a good look at the boy. He needs to come with me, be with his own people who’ll keep him safe.”

/ _Truth and not-truth_ ,/ the voice said, which Andrew took to mean that Stuart believed what he said but that Neil wouldn’t be safe with the shadow walker.

“ _Neil_ decides where he goes, he’s a big boy,” was all Andrew said. Oh, one more thing. “Now get the hell out of here.” He had the spirits back that up, and after a few good shoves, Stuart swore in old Fae before he used the shadows to leave.

“He’s probably going to try Wymack next,” Kevin warned as he raised the vodka bottle to his lips.

“They both deserve each other.” For some reason that remark made Kevin glare at him, but Andrew ignored it as he went to the bedroom; the mutts moved aside then followed him into it, over to where Neil sat in an open window with his legs dangling outside. “So you’ve assholes on both sides of the family.”

Neil looked up at him as Andrew leaned against the wall near him, not quite close enough to touch; that close Andrew could make out the faint freckles beneath the pixie dust and the intricate weave of the small braids. “Stuart… he’s nowhere near as bad as my father. I think he meant well, he just, uhm, well, he could have come across a bit better.” Neil winced as looked out at the elaborate gardens once more.

He could have asked Neil what he wanted instead of ordering his nephew around, and not insulted Andrew and Kevin in the bargain. The more Andrew got to know Neil, he realized that Neil really didn’t have anything against changelings, which was rare for a pureblood. Then again, he realized that Neil didn’t have the most conventional of upbringings. “Do you want to go with him?” It seemed to him that Neil had largely chosen to swear to Wymack because of him.

Surprise and upset flowed across the link. “With my uncle? No.” Neil shook his head. “I barely know him.”

“But he’s made you his heir, and there’s your mother’s knowe. You’ve got your own knowe, you don’t need the Dark Road.”

Neil sighed as he toyed with the knife strapped to his right thigh. “It’s still a part of Fae, which means I’d be subjected to a High Court and a queen and… no.” He slumped against the sill near Andrew, close enough to touch, for Andrew to swipe at the dust glittering on a high cheekbone or to pick at the flowers in that ridiculous hair, to stroke along an elongated ear and make the idiot shiver. Oh, how someone was much too trusting anymore. “If I can’t have the Dark Road all of the time, then it’s fine, the Foxhole Court.”

That raised a series of new questions, but just then all Andrew did was light a cigarette while he stood there with Neil close by, as Kevin joined them a minute or two later with a cautious look at the shadow wolves gathered on the floor by Neil and leaned against the wall on the other side of the window then quietly began to tell them a story about how Brennan the Dark had tricked the High Court of Europe several centuries ago.

*******

Neil didn’t want to leave the rooms where it was quiet and peaceful and free of his father, but Kevin insisted that the three of them go out into the knowe – that it wasn’t good for him to hide away. That it would play into Neil’s father’s plans, into the Moriyamas’ gossip about him being ‘mad’ if he acted like a recluse. He couldn’t use a glamour, too, since the Moriyamas would be certain to bring up his appearance to the High Court, so if Neil acted as if was normal… well, he really didn’t understand that one very well. People were going to react, but if he didn’t allow the Moriyamas to be the ones to reveal what the Dark Road had done to him, then perhaps he could lessen the impact of it.

Still, he felt the urge to tug the hood of his jerkin over his head as he walked down the hallway with Andrew and Kevin beside him, with the shadow wolves in front of and behind him and Aaron and Nicky a little further ahead. “This place is huge!” Nicky exclaimed for what had to the third time. “How do people not get lost here?”

“They have an attention span bigger than a gnat’s,” Aaron said with a bit of heat as he glared at his cousin. “Stop acting like an idiot and embarrassing me.”

“Someone sure is grumpy.” Nicky spun around, which made Neil get a strong whiff of the pungent cologne the changeling wore and cough as a result, and made a kissing motion at Aaron. “Jealous that I’m going to get some soon?”

“Just keep that gross shit out of our rooms,” Aaron sneered. “I don’t need to see or hear you and-“ He stumbled suddenly as if tripped by something invisible, while Neil had picked up on a sense of annoyance over the bond with Andrew. Neil’s suspicion was confirmed that it hadn’t been simple clumsiness on Aaron’s part when he looked over his shoulder to scowl at his brother.

“Something to say?”

“Yeah, you’re an asshole,” Aaron declared as he straightened his black shirt then gave Andrew a rude gesture, but around then they had reached the banquet hall. Aaron was quick to put some space between himself and the rest of them, and judging from the rush of cold which flew past Neil, he was willing to bet that Andrew had sent a spirit to follow his twin. As for Nicky, the young man went off with a determined expression, probably to find the boyfriend that Neil had heard about – Erik.

Kevin and Andrew remained near Neil, though, while people at first gawked at him and then paled when they noticed the shadow wolves. Hushed voices followed in their wake as they made their way around the periphery of the large room, the feel of eyes upon him like scratchy wool to Neil’s skin. He wanted to drag his nails along his skin, to slip into the shadows and flee, but he wouldn’t run away from his father and Riko and Tetsuji this time.

Something caught Kevin’s eyes so they altered their path to what turned out to be a large table covered with food and drink, including a huge crystal bowl filled with a tart-smelling punch. Kevin was eager to grab the heavy ladle and pour himself a cup to drink, and Andrew picked up the ladle once the Tuatha de Danann set it down. Neil stood next to them and drew in a deep breath, the tart scent familiar to him for some reason, as was the bright red of the punch, and then he gasped as he lunged for Andrew’s arm before the necromancer – the _changeling_ – could lift the cut crystal cup to his lip.

“ _Don’t_ ,” he warned as Andrew gave him a level look back despite Neil’s strong grip on his right wrist. “There’s goblin fruit in it.”

“What?” Kevin’s brows shot up as he took another gulp of the punch and then he cursed in French before snatching at the cup in Andrew’s hand to drink that as well. “He’s right,” he said, his voice hoarse as his cheeks grew flushed. “There’s a lot of other things in it, but it’s there.”

Andrew’s jaw clenched, a minute shifting of muscles that only hinted at the anger simmering inside of him, and then he closed his eyes for a moment while Neil caught a whiff of rich earth and ivy, so he guessed that Andrew was using his spirits to check on Aaron and Nicky. “Is it just the punch?” he asked when he opened his eyes, then he gave his right arm a slight tug; Neil hadn’t realized that he’d still been holding on to it and let go with a slight flush of embarrassment.

“Uhm, one moment.” Kevin looked at Neil who sighed as he picked up some small cake-like treat and braced himself for his body’s reaction once he bit into it. The flavor was somewhat muted, just like all food which wasn’t from the Dark Road had become, but he caught the unique flavor of goblin fruit as he searched about for something to spit the treat into then resigned himself to swallowing it.

“Ugh, it’s in the cake things,” he said as he fought not to throw up over the still too sweet taste. Meanwhile, Kevin had tried one of the tarts and nodded.

“It’s in these, too. I’m not that familiar with it, but I’m willing to bet that it’s in more stuff.” He glanced around and caught sight of something then went stalking off; Andrew straightened up and frowned at that, but it was only off to the side of the room where a couple of Brownies were busy cleaning up something. They were wary at first, but Kevin bent down to talk to them and soon they were gesturing around the room and nodding.

“Your family?” Neil asked as he poured himself some water to help wash the awful taste from his mouth.

“Aaron’s on his way back here now, oh so happy, and Nicky’s busy making out with Erik. As soon as he comes up for breath, he’ll be dragged here, too,” Andrew explained as he snatched at Neil’s water before Neil could take more than a sip. All Neil did was give Nuit a silent look of ‘seriously, not one bite, dammit’ before he poured himself another glass while Pilier knocked some cakes off of the table for him and Danseur.

Kevin returned to the table just ahead of a flustered Aaron. “They said it’s in everything put out tonight except the water,” Kevin confirmed. “They had to be very careful since there’s some changelings among the staff and they weren’t happy about it, but they had their orders. I asked them to bring us some food and drinks without the fruit in it.”

“What fruit?” Aaron asked as he scowled at his brother. “What the fuck are you doing now? Can’t you go one damn night without ruining my fun?”

Andrew gave his twin a cool look while he ran the fingers of his right hand along the inside of his left hand. “Fine, next time I’ll leave you be and see how you like being addicted to goblin fruit.”

“Very funny,” Aaron scoffed, only for his expression to grow incredulous as he noticed Kevin’s solemn demeanor, Andrew’s blank face and Neil steadily feeding tarts to the shadow wolves (he figured if they could eat Fae, then goblin fruit wouldn’t hurt them and better they eat the damn things than some poor unsuspecting changeling). “Fuck, you’re not joking.”

“I’m not known for a sense of humor, how sad.” Andrew jerked his head in the direction of the rest of the crowd. “Help us spread the word to the rest of the Foxes and any changelings you can find, if it’s not too late. If you have to have something to eat, Kevin’s made friends with the staff and can hook you up.”

“Shit.” Aaron rubbed at his face, his expression bleak for a moment. “ _Shit_ ,” he repeated. “Seth was gulping down punch like it was water earlier.”

Weary resignation flowed over the link along with a flare of anger, and Neil thought he understood Andrew’s feelings – Seth had to know that the punch was tainted with goblin fruit, being an addict himself, yet he hadn’t warned the other Foxhole Court changelings? “Don’t eat or drink anything that Kevin can’t vouch for,” Andrew told his brother.

“I got it.” When he noticed Andrew holding a glass of water, Andrew nodded and handed over the glass, which Aaron drained in a couple of gulps. “I’ll go find the others.”

He wasn’t too far from the table when he ran into a disheveled Nicky accompanied by a tall blond Huldafolk, both of whom appeared upset until Aaron dragged them along with him. Meanwhile, Neil wished that he had Jorea or another of the pixies around to help find the rest of the Foxes, but had a feeling that they would have some interesting tidbits of information once he returned to the room later.

“You’ve had a lot of goblin fruit, did you?” Andrew asked as he tossed what looked to be some sort of mincemeat pie to Nuit, who caught it in mid-air; everyone seemed to be avoiding the table because of the shadow wolves. “To be able to pick up on it like that.”

“We had to have something to help with the pain,” he told Andrew as he wrapped his arms around his scarred abdomen. “While we were on the run. Moonshine from the humans, brandy or goblin fruit wine from the Fae, things like that, something to take the edge off.” Off to the side, Kevin paled as he rubbed at his scarred left hand.

Things were quiet after that, but as they stood there waiting for the Brownies to return, Neil noticed that there were small bursts of activity around the large banquet hall. Voices raised and the sound of dishes breaking, but before he could crane his head to get a better look, two figures in black and red approached the table.

“Huh, the help around here is pathetic – a thin-blooded changeling, a cripple and a pussycat without a collar.”

Neil felt his chest grow tight as Aleksander and Cenck sauntered toward him with smirks on their faces, smirks he’d seen so many times before when they’d entered the cell, when he’d been bound by the iron cuffs and chains, when he’d been unable to do anything but lash out weakly with his feet and curse with ineffective words lacking any magic.

He was jolted back to reality by the sound of the shadow wolves’ snarls and the feel of rage pouring into him even as there was a gentle touch to the back of his neck; he realized that Andrew was beside him as the wolves fanned out in front of him, that the gauntlet once more encased his lower right arm.

As he struggled to breathe, Kevin stepped forward with his hands resting on his hips, resting where his weapons would normally hang. “You never were the cleverest, Aleksander. You know the rules about no fighting.” Disapproval almost dripped from his voice, from his entire being as he glared at the two Evermore knights.

“Who said anything about fighting?” The Fachan Sidhe attempted to sneer at Kevin, but was too nervous just then as he eyed the shadow wolves, while beside him the Bugul-Noz palmed at the small knife tucked into his belt. “We’re just stating the simple truth.”

“No, not quite,” Andrew said as he leaned away from Neil. “What do you want?”

Disdain twisted Aleksander’s features as he looked past Andrew at Neil. “You’ll be back soon enough, pussycat. Your father will skin those mutts of yours and we’ll use their hides to line the walls of your cell, will-“

Neil didn’t listen to anything else, he let his own rage burst forth as he slipped into the shadows (not to the Dark Road, dammit, never back home but just enough to break free from the Fae realm for a second) and then back into the High Court’s knowe behind the two knights with the shadow wolves in step around him, back to catch Aleksander as he reeled from a spirit slamming into him. He caught the knight with the gauntlet covered hand tight around his throat and let his father’s magic burn through his blood, let it light his silver covered hand as he stared at the suddenly panicked Fae as sharp fingers pricked ever-so lightly against dark skin.

Somewhere behind him, someone called out Neil’s name but he didn’t care as he stared into Aleksander’s brown eyes. “Never speak to me again,” he told the knight. “Never speak to me, never come near me, never _touch_ me again. I swear to you upon the shadows and darkness that if you do any of those things that I’ll hunt you down and drain you if it’s the last thing I do.” He held on to the Fachan Sidhe’s neck for a few more seconds, felt the pulse beat frantic against his fingers and the magic rage at him to be set free, to drain the knight, before he finally let go.

Aleksander tumbled to the floor in a heap of black and red clothes wrapped around trembling limbs as Neil turned to the wolves, who were snapping at a cringing Cenck. “ _Leave him be for now_ ,” he called out in old Fae, and after a whine of complaint, they obeyed. “ _I’ll find you more treats here_ ,” he promised as he rubbed Ombré’s ears.

He looked up to find that a crowd had gathered around them, including a red-faced Wymack who stomped toward him – at least until Nuit growled. “That was… Oberon’s balls, kid, bloodthirsty much?”

“I don’t know, he proved that he can control it,” Betsy added as she approached, along with Abby. “That’s in our favor.”

Neil was about to say something, except that he noticed Lola, Riko and Jean in the crowd, and two of the three didn’t appear pleased just then. So he pushed down the anger, the terrible temper he'd inherited from his father and shook his head. "I'm not letting them control me anymore." Even though he was certain that the two knights had been sent to push him, to make him react, he wasn't going to allow anyone to think that he was helpless anymore, that all he could do was endure.

Wymack looked as if he was going to say something, but Abby shook her head and motioned toward the nearest exit. "Let's take this somewhere else."

"Great idea," Wymack grunted as he waved Neil and Andrew ahead. "Come on, we'll go to my room."

Neil turned around to leave and noticed the crowd staring at him - staring at his right side. At the gauntlet which had extended past the sleeve of his shirt, gleaming bright in the lights of the grand hall as it coated his middle three fingers as if liquid silver. He sighed as he tried to will it to retreat, but the damn thing seemed to have a mind of its own - that and he couldn't exactly say that he was safe, here at the High Court. Not when he caught his father's eye from where the man was standing near the exit, Nathan's expression blank as he looked from the wolves to Neil's clawed hand then to Neil's face. That was unusual, since Neil was used to the man appearing either assured or angry or calculating, but never blank.

Unusual and unnerving.

He started when he felt Andrew's hand on the back of his neck, and noticed that his friend was staring at Nathan, who looked away from Neil to meet the necromancer's equally blank gaze. Something seemed to pass between the two Fae, and then Nathan stepped back into the crowd while hate-tinged consideration passed over the bond.

"He's Firstborn," Neil sighed as he rubbed at his right wrist.

"So? It doesn't mean he can't die if I shove an iron knife into his throat, does it?" Andrew asked in that flat manner of his.

Neil muttered about idiots in old Fae the entire way to the wing where they were staying, and found Wymack's rooms large and airy as befitted a 'lord' of a knowe. Wymack took to leaning against the wall near the ornate mantel of the fireplace as he watched all of his 'Foxes' settle into the common room, and frowned when he noticed that Nicky had brought along his lover, Erik. "Since when did he swear an oath to me?"

Nicky held up his hands in a placating manner. "Erik's good, I promise you, okay? He's heard some things that might be useful and he won't betray us."

Sitting next to him on the small couch, Erik nodded. "I won't betray Lady Amelia, but she's neutral here, you know that. She has no fondness for the Moriyamas and you've assisted her in the past."

Wymack considered that for a couple of seconds then grunted. "And where's Seth?" he asked as he gave an oddly subdued Allison a pointed look.

"Off with a few other friends," she told him as she twisted the material of her full skirt between her hands while her left shoulder raised in what seemed to be a negligent shrug. "Enjoying some goblin fruit wine." Her tone was blasé, but Neil picked up on the hurt in her blue eyes and the tightness of her jaw. "I think... I don't think he's going to be of much help while we're here."

Wymack took to cursing softly as he rubbed at his forehead while Abby and Renee went over to give Allison a quick hug; for some reason Renee remained by Allison's side with her arm around the Valkyrie's shoulders, which prompted dark amusement from Andrew. "Let me know if you need something," Wymack told Allison.

All she did was nod once.

"Okay then, let's figure out how badly things got fu-" He was interrupted by a knock on the door, which Kevin went to answer; it turned out to be a couple of Brownies bearing trays of fruit and drink, which they set down on various flat surfaces.

"This is what you asked for," one of them told Kevin with a reverent bow.

"Thank you," he said, a charming smile on his face for once.

"Wait a minute." Andrew left Neil's side to approach the Brownies, which made them shift about in obvious nervousness. " _Is there any goblin fruit in this food_?" he asked, and Neil felt the pulse of that new magic of his, the awful truth compulsion.

"No," the one Brownie answered as he shook his head in a fervent manner. "The bright Fae asked for this and we obeyed, no goblin fruit."

Andrew cocked his head to the side for a moment then scoffed. "'Bright one' my ass." Then he turned toward his brother. "It's safe to eat."

"About time, I'm starving," Aaron complained as he went over to the nearest tray and grabbed what looked to be some sort of pasty, while Nicky cheered as he jumped up and grabbed a bottle. Meanwhile, Kevin chided Andrew that the Brownies could be trusted, which Andrew ignored in favor of grabbing a bottle of what looked to be wine himself.

As the rest of the Foxes helped themselves to the food and the Brownies left, Neil fetched himself some water since he'd made sure to eat some of the fruit he'd brought along earlier, and settled on a couch with the wolves tucked against him or at his feet. Once everyone had something, Andrew joined him on the couch and Wymack once more resumed his spot by the fireplace. "All right, it goes without saying that Andrew, Aaron and Nicky, don't eat anything that you don't trust." He nodded in approval at Kevin. "Good job there." For some reason, Kevin appeared flustered by the praise. "That'll help in the next few days, having the staff supply us with food."

"They can't keep spiking the food at all of the events, not when several other courts were unhappy when they found out about the menu tonight, but we can't risk them targeting us," Bee said.

"How did they even think they could get away with it tonight, dammit?" Matt appeared furious enough that his eyes glowed red as his Ifrit heritage rose to the fore, and Dan made a soothing sound as she rubbed his shoulders.

"Someone will just say that they forgot about the changelings in attendance, considering all the prominent purebloods," Bee answered with a mocking smile. "Evermore is known for its... well, some knowes are more stringent about who it accepts than others." She sent Andrew an apologetic glance. "As were a couple of other knowes in attendance."

"Because they're prejudiced assholes," Wymack muttered. "But there's no way that was an accident or an oversight tonight. They were trying to hurt us by taking out a few of our own."

"And then they set those two guys on Neil." Dan motioned toward him with some sort of poultry leg she'd been gnawing on. "It's clear that they were trying to provoke him, to get him to break the rules about fighting."

"Yes, those two." Andrew's interest flared as he turned a little to the left to face Neil. "What were their names?"

"Why does that matter?" Neil asked him with a frown.

"Because I want to know," Andrew answered as he tapped the fingers of his right hand against the back of the couch. "Their names."

That wasn't much of an answer, but Neil shrugged while he petted Danseur's head. "Aleksander and Cenck." He waited for more of a response from the necromancer, but none came other than Andrew taking a long sip of wine.

"Well, whoever they were, they got more than they bargained for," Aaron remarked as he fetched something to drink as well. "People weren't happy to see the gauntlet, did you notice that?"

"Kind of difficult to miss," Kevin muttered as he pulled out his flask. “Wrapped around throats and all.”

“It wasn’t wrapped around yours, _yet_ ,” Neil told him with a false smile.

“What?” Kevin lowered the flask enough to frown at him. “Just because those two came over to taunt you, you had to-“ he waved his left hand in the air a couple of times. “You’re supposed to prove yourself sane, not a psychopath, and-“

“Kevin, shut up,” Andrew said in that flat way of his, yet it cut off the Tuatha de Danann while Neil sat there with his hands clenched into fists as he thought about how Aleksander had threatened to hurt the shadow wolves, had threatened Neil with ending back in that awful cell with the iron cuffs on him and no way to fight back when those bastards once more came for him.

Kevin blinked at the two of them then flinched when Nuit bared his teeth. “But… but it’s just words.”

“Then go have a nice drink with Riko, why don’t you?” Andrew offered, and huffed when Kevin flinched again. “It’s never ‘just words’ with these pricks.”

“Not when they’re so much on the defensive, which it seems they are,” Renee remarked from her spot beside Allison. “They’re doing their best to hurt us before tomorrow, which is a sign of weakness.”

A weak laugh broke from Neil at that comment. “Aren’t we lucky?” Then he blinked when Andrew reached over to haul him off of the couch. “What?”

“I think it’s past someone’s bedtime, let’s go.”

“But-“

“Idiots should be seen and not heard.”

That earned the bastard a spate of curses in old Fae, which Andrew always ignored in the first place though Kevin winced as Neil insulted the necromancer’s bloodline, looks and hygiene in no particular order. Renee waved to them as they left and Abby called out for Kevin to not drink too much, then they found themselves out in the quiet hallway.

“It’s going to be bad tomorrow,” Kevin said as he shook his flask as if to determine how much alcohol it contained.  “They’ll be out for blood.”

“Surprise us all, Day, and be positive for once,” Andrew told him as he had a spirit snatch away the flask, which prompted a complaint from Kevin. “We didn’t come here to lose.” When Neil sucked in a sharp breath at the thought of what losing meant – at returning to Evermore – Andrew gave him an annoyed look, his emotions shaded with anger. “Don’t you start on me, too. I’m not dealing with both of you idiots breaking down on me tonight.”

“I… no,” Neil said as he shook his head; Andrew had been right, they hadn’t come here to lose. There was no way that Neil’s father or the Moriyamas would win, no way that Neil would let them sell their lies to the High Court. “It’s like Renee said, they’re too desperate so they know they don’t have much of a chance.”

“Exactly.” Andrew gave him an assessing look for a couple of seconds before accepting the flask from a spirit then draining it dry while Kevin complained, and tossed it to the Tuatha de Danann before he opened the door to their room.

As soon as the door swung open, Neil caught a whiff of fresh blood and heated metal, a scent that haunted him through nightmares, that made his bones ache and skin burn with the memory of pain, and he yanked on the back of Andrew’s shirt even as the shadow wolves rushed forward and the pixies shrieked their outrage at the Fae they held trapped in a glowing, swirling circle of dust; Neil recognized the ones who’d come with him from the Foxhole Court, but it appeared that several from the High Court knowe had joined them.

“Why am I not surprised that you’ve got the flying rats on your side? They’re small and vicious, just like the Hatfords,” Nathan scoffed as he stood a few feet from the entrance with his arms crossed over his chest.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Andrew asked in an almost civil tone, while Neil could feel the rage and hatred burning inside of his friend.

“Something else that’s small and vicious, and as ill-bred as a rat, too.” Nathan sneered at Andrew before he ignored him in favor of Neil. “Come, Junior, it’s time for a father-son chat.”

“What, where you explain to me why you decided to sell me off to the Moriyamas in exchange for your freedom?” Neil asked as he rested his right hand on top of a snarling Ombré’s head while Kevin shifted closer to Andrew. He took some satisfaction in the way his father’s pale blue eyes narrowed and smiled. “I want nothing to do you.”

“Tough shit,” Nathan snarled as he leaned forward, only to curse again when he hit the invisible barrier the pixies had thrown up around him. “You’re of my blood, my seed, and I can do whatever the fuck I want with you, can carve you to pieces or sell you off to the highest bidder.”

It was so difficult to tell where Neil’s emotions ended and Andrew’s began just then, and the gauntlet was sharp claws on his right hand as he clenched it into a fist. “You… I-“

“You don’t own shit,” Andrew spat as he stepped forward, in front of Neil as if to shield him from his father. “Just because you got off at the right time doesn’t mean you own Neil, it just means he’s stuck with a huge asshole for a father, that’s it. Any claim you had on him broke the first day you raised your fist to him.”

“I don’t expect a changeling to understand-“

“Oh no, this isn’t your fucked up pureblood crap right here,” Andrew insisted as he cut off Nathan – as he cut off _the Butcher_. “You know you have no control of him, it’s why you tried to beat him into submission from the very start.”

Neil felt his stomach twist and all the old wounds from the many blows, cuts and burns which his father had inflicted upon him ache upon hearing Andrew’s words, as he thought about all the abuse he’d suffered from such a young age. Behind him, Kevin mumbled something that might have been a prayer or an urging for Andrew to shut up, especially since Nathan’s magic flared again in either an attempt to break free or to hurl some sort of curse at the necromancer.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Nathan warned as his hands glowed with an ominous silver light.

Andrew gave him a mocking grin. “Butcher, baker, a sadistic faker,” he sang out before his smile vanished. “ _What do you intend to do to Neil_?” he asked as he met Nathan’s baleful glare.

“Fuck oh-ah… to give him to Tetsuji so I’ll finally be free. Except he wasn’t supposed to be the heir, he-“ Nathan bit into his bottom lip as a something akin to dark amusement gleamed in his eyes. Then he swiped at the blood trickling down his chin and flicked it in front of him while muttering a spell beneath his breath, something which made the pixies hiss as their barrier broke apart.

He came rushing forward with a knife held out in his hand, only for Andrew’s spirits to push him aside and the shadow wolves to snap at his heels. Nathan cursed again and stumbled to the side as he scowled at the three of them, at Neil with Ombré and Danseur pressed against him, Andrew surrounded by a whirling sphere of spirits and Kevin with a glowing charmed stone in his left hand.

Nathan eyed them for a moment then gave a bitter laugh as he flipped the knife in his hand before it vanished up the right sleeve of his dark brown shirt. “Come to me willingly, Nathaniel, or I’ll destroy all you hold dear.”

Neil pushed past the fear and hatred he felt for his father to give the man a cold smile. "How does it feel, to know that you'll never break free from the Moriyamas? To know that your own father put that leash around your neck?"

His father chuckled in response, the sound possessing more malevolence than mirth. "You got her fire, Junior. I never got a chance to break her, but I _will_ break you."

"You'll never get that chance," Andrew said before Neil could respond, while he used the spirits to shove Nathan closer to the door. "Not even Oberon thought you were worth much."

"Funny thing about heirs," Nathan commented as the door opened in front of him. "There's never just one, there's always a successor. None of you are irreplaceable." He gave them all that sharp, cruel smile of his before he stepped through the doorway, and a spirit slammed the door shut behind him.

Kevin was quick to step near it and cast a hasty ward over it, then slumped against the door. "That was...." He gave up on speaking as he shook his head then hurried over to the one table where there were several bottles of liquor, where he poured some into a glass and surprised Neil by bringing it over to him while drinking straight from the bottle. Neil accepted it with a raised eyebrow but sipped it all the same, only wincing a little at the taste and how it settled in his stomach. "Your father is still as terrible as ever," Kevin said after a few swallows.

"And here I thought he'd mellow with age," Neil joked as Jorea and Arrant settled on his shoulders and Ombré rubbed her head along his right hip.

" _Rude one with no respect_ ," Jorea sniffed. " _No proper clan will honor his knowe_."

No, there hadn't been any pixies at Baiting's Edge while Neil had grown up there, which probably was a good thing considering what had happened to some of the weaker Fae during- he gulped down the rest of the strong brandy and shuddered.

Still, Andrew must have picked up on something since he came back to Neil's side after grabbing a bottle of what looked to be whiskey. "Did you get all of the smart mouth out of you today?"

Neil gave him a bland look for that. "What do you mean?"

Andrew's hazel eyes narrowed at that remark while Kevin cursed in French and began drinking in earnest. "Let me put it this way - you behave yourself tomorrow or I find a way to curb that sharp tongue of yours when you're being an idiot." When Jorea hissed at the necromancer, Andrew turned that flat look on the pixie. "No, this is for _his_ benefit. He needs to be calm in front of the High Court, so no insults, no taunting, no being... well, him."

"How nice," Neil said with more than an adequate amount of amount of sarcasm.

"Yes, try it for once and surprise me," Andrew told him before walking away.

Neil scowled at the bastard's back while Kevin shuffled in place. "He, uhm, has a point, you know." When Neil directed his gaze at the Tuatha de Danann, Kevin sighed and resumed drinking.

Having enough of both men for the time being, Neil went to sit out on the balcony with the wolves and the pixies.

*******

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> So? There you go. First day at the Hight Court, and things will happen in the next chapter (unless things get dragged out as they seem to happen, bah). Oh yes, things will happen.
> 
> Hey! I managed to get past chapter nine without kisses and 'oh my god I like this person!' on Neil's part. I consider that a win.
> 
> So yes, my take on the Fae (breaking them down between the big Three). It's not just Neil, the three of them (Neil, Andrew and Kevin) will be affecting the others, it just started out with Neil at first. And yes, the pixies have claimed him big time.
> 
> Hmm, anything else?
> 
> As always, kudos and comments are greatly appreciated.  
> *******


	10. The Ghost In You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm... this has one of those scenes I've been obsessing over from the start. See if you can figure out which one it is....
> 
> So, mentions of stuff that has happened in the past. No new triggers as of yet. Just saying.
> 
> Still got the slow burn going on. We're getting there, though....
> 
> Hopefully not too many mistakes. I've read through this, but it's up to the last minute on getting this done.  
> *******

*******

The sound of a low growl and spirits murmuring in Andrew’s head woke him in a rush; it took him a moment to realize where he was, that the unfamiliar room was at the High Court knowe and the faint snoring in the bed next to his own was Kevin while the growling from the corner was Neil’s shadow mutts. Andrew rubbed at his bleary eyes as he loosened the hold on the knife in his hand then shoved back the fine linens of the bed so he could climb out of it and see what the spirits were going on about, who had come into the rooms but ‘weren’t a danger’. _He’d_ decide if they ‘weren’t a danger’.

He stood up around the same time that Neil did, surrounded by shadow wolves and pixies, and glared at the idiot to indicate that he would go first. As he approached the door leading to the common area of their suite, he had a couple of spirits wake Kevin up by shaking the bed, which provoked a loud complaint from the coward.

“We warded the place last night,” Neil murmured as he neared Andrew. “All three of us.”

“If it’s your father again, I really am stabbing him in the throat,” Andrew promised – he didn’t care about the knowe’s ‘no fighting’ rule. The man would have broken into their rooms twice, so if that wasn’t a hostile gesture, Andrew didn’t know what was.

Kevin had just managed to fumble onto his feet when Andrew threw open the door separating the two rooms, only to discover that their ‘intruders’ were several Brownies hustling about to clean the common area and set down huge trays of food and drink. The food smelled amazing – aromas of cinnamon, sugar, coffee, fresh baked bread and bacon, among other things, and the small Fae paused as if one and looked over at the door until they spied Kevin. Then they seemed to light up and rushed over to the Tuatha de Danann and chided him about his appearance and asked about his clothes for the day, while Andrew went to help himself to the food and Neil used the shadows to get out of their way.

“House wards,” the idiot said as he investigated a pot of tea and poured himself some, then set a tray filled with pasties down on the floor for the mutts and motioned for the pixies to help themselves to a plate of sugary pastries; Andrew gave him a cool look for such ‘generosity’ and would have words to say about it, but there was more than enough food left over. “Brownies are really good at getting around house wards, as long as it’s their own. They’re expected to have access to everything to be able to clean and tend to the knowe, after all.” He had a sip of the tea and only grimaced a little, while the pixies chattered about in evident excitement as they demolished the pastries with a voraciousness which belied their tiny size.

/ _Truth_./

“Huh.” Andrew paused in adding milk and sugar to his coffee to consider that; it was an interesting tidbit to know, especially since it appeared that the Brownies were eager to please Kevin. “Why do you think they’re reacting like this to him now?” he asked in a quiet voice. Granted, they had always seemed to come up with whatever Kevin asked for back at the Foxhole Court, especially his requests for alcohol, but this fervor was new.

Neil frowned as he stared into his cup of tea for a moment. “Maybe because they’re used to him back at the knowe? These Brownies haven’t met him before, and if… well, if things are getting to the point where we _have_ to take him for the ring, then it’s probably more noticeable to someone who hasn’t met him yet. Uhm, the changes or whatever.” The frown deepened as Neil’s gaze shifted to the silver gauntlet around his right wrist.

‘Changes’, wasn’t that a nice thing to consider? Yet there Neil sat with a pixie perched on his shoulder and shadow wolves lounging around him, unable to take part in a mini-feast because he’d eaten food on the Dark Road and been changed into a replica of sorts of the Unseelie queen. There Andrew sat munching on an apple tart with a gold torc around his neck which had whispered ‘ _truth_ ’ in his head over that explanation, while Kevin shouted something about being able to take a bath by himself in the other room.

Before Andrew could dwell any deeper on those ‘changes’, a disgruntled Kevin came into the room with several eager Brownies at his heels. “Look, I appreciate it, I do, but that’s enough, taking care of the outfit for me.” He perked up when he saw all of the food. “And breakfast.” He was quick to snatch up a carafe of coffee and pour some into the nearest mug.

“What about my brother and cousin next door?” Andrew asked as he picked up another apple tart.

The Brownie with short dark hair and a white scarf tied around his neck gave him a curt bow. “Food was delivered there as well, no goblin fruit in any of it.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew concentrated on the spirits he’d left watching over Aaron and Nicky, and found that both were next door, along with Erik (which was certain to have Aaron in a wonderful mood), and busy eating at the moment. A bit presumptuous of them to just go ahead like that, but maybe Erik had tested things first or something.

Once the Brownies were assured that Kevin was pleased with the food and fine for the foreseeable future, they finally left and Neil went to fetch a few pieces of grey fruit to eat before they took turns in the lavish bathroom getting ready for the day – Andrew and Neil first, since Kevin always took the longest. Andrew noticed the way that Neil’s eyes lingered on his face before and after he shaved and the sense of fascination over the bond, and had some more dark thoughts about Renee.

Once again choosing a high collar shirt to hide the torc, Andrew dressed all in black, while Neil wore dark blue pants with a dark orange shirt and a dark blue hooded jerkin over it. He’d just taken to combing his fingers through his damp hair when about a dozen pixies swarmed him, causing him to cry out in a mix of old Fae and Pixish while the mutts merely looked on; Andrew could feel consternation and annoyance over the bond and smell fresh lilacs as the idiot was all but engulfed in pixie dust.

Neil had been right, they were determined as fuck.

By the time the flying pests were done, Neil’s hair was once more pulled back from his face in the intricate braids from the day before and adorned with individual purple lilac blooms, his features and hair sparkling with the enchanted dust which emphasized the sharp planes of his face, the elongated sweep of his ears, the cold blue of his eyes and the lack of white to them – it made his ‘otherness’ stand out all the more.

His otherness, and the fact that he was one hell of an attractive idiot despite being so unusual.

“Why?” Neil asked when the pixies fluttered away from him, his tone so plaintive just then that Andrew didn’t need to feel his emotions to know how confused he was. “Why do all this?”

Jorea said something in Pixish which made Neil sigh and shake his head, the confusion undiminished as he attempted to brush some of the dust from his clothes. “But why do you want _me_?”

Even with such small creatures, Andrew could tell there was much rolling of the eyes just then, and knew he wasn’t the only one who believed Neil to be an idiot.

Still, Ombré and Danseur went over to rub against him, which cheered Neil up somewhat, and then Jorea turned about in the air to face Andrew with several lilac blossoms in held in the full skirt of her silver and purple dress. She had a calculating look on her sharp-featured face as she eyed him up and down – eyed his head up and down, which made him narrow his eyes at her. “Don’t even _think_ it,” he warned the flying pest as he held up his right hand with his thumb and middle finger touching in a clear gesture of him ready to flick the pixie away – the tiny Fae were tough, and being flicked into the wall wouldn’t do them any real damage at all. There was no way in hell he was allowing them to shove flowers in his hair and be ‘claimed’ like a certain Unseelie idiot.

Jorea made a sniffing sound then shrugged before she flew over to settle on Neil’s right shoulder, which seemed to be her preferred spot. Andrew watched Neil strap on a slim blade to his hip before he tucked the vials of altered pixie dust beneath his armbands and adjusted his own weapons. “Now then, you’re going to behave for once and be quiet today, right?”

Neil muttered in old Fae for a moment before giving Andrew a sharp smile. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re an impulsive, short-tempered idiot prone for doing ridiculous things,” Andrew reminded him. “So keep your mouth shut and let Bee do the arguing.”

Displeasure spiked over the bond as Neil turned toward Nuit and muttered in old Fae for a few seconds, while the shadow wolf just ‘smiled’ in return. “That wasn’t a ‘yes’,” Andrew noted with growing annoyance.

“That was a ‘I hope you have the flesh stripped from your bones’ one day, but fine, _yes_ ,” Neil all but hissed. “How much longer until we can leave?”

/ _Truth_./

Someone was a little eager to face off against his father soon, but Andrew supposed the sooner the stupid court… whatever was done, the sooner it was over with and they could go back to the Foxhole Court.  With that in mind, he sent one of the spirits into the bathroom to hurry Kevin up, and a few seconds later a furious coward came stomping into the room with his shirt half-undone and hair sticking up in different directions. “What?” Kevin snapped.

“Sometime today, Day,” Andrew drawled. “Maybe you should have had the Brownies help you.”

Kevin flipped him off as he finished getting ready, once again with an elaborate black shirt and boots with too many buckles and just too much effort- Andrew was left wondering just who it was the coward was trying to impress. If Andrew caught him pouring something into the coffee he drank before they left the suite, he didn’t say anything, not when they would have to deal with the Moriyamas that day.

They went to Wymack’s rooms to regroup with the rest of the Foxes, stopping along the way to drag Aaron, Nicky and Erik with them (more Nicky and Erik, as Aaron was more than ready to get away from their cousin at that point). As expected, there was a lot of orange to be seen once all of the Foxes were assembled, and Wymack took to muttering when he caught sight of Neil. “Again? Why, for fuck’s sake?”

“It’s not that bad,” Allison insisted as she came as close to the idiot as the wolves would allow, her hands fisted on her hips – she was dressed in skin tight leather pants that day and a loose spider-silk orange blouse with a white vest over it. “He doesn’t look like some hopeless case this way. Improbable, yes, but not hopeless.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Neil asked as he gave her a wary look.

She shrugged as she eyed him a little more then sauntered away. “It is what it is. Just that our kind like a mystery more than they do someone to pity, which will be in your favor.”

/ _Truth_./

Yes, the Fae weren’t big on pity and sympathy, as Andrew had learned. Speaking of ‘pity’, he noticed that Seth wasn’t to be found, though Allison appeared to be handling it better that day. She was back to her confident self, all smiles and attitude, though he noticed the worried frown on Abby’s face and how Renee’s dark eyes tracked the Valkyrie.

Still, one crisis at a time, and Andrew had his hands full with Neil and Kevin so he went over to Bee who was dressed in an off-white gown with orange runes embroidered on the hem of the skirt and the sleeves. “Tell me you’ve a silence hex ready for Wymack and you’re going to do the arguing.”

“Well, mostly yes for the second and I think he’ll do fine,” she told him with a smile. “Give him a chance.” When Andrew’s eyes narrowed, her smile widened. “Remember, no violence.”

“I don’t consider cutting off his airflow to be violence, but putting all of us out of our misery,” he warned, but at that point, it looked as if everyone was leaving so he was spared Bee’s counter-argument. He made sure to have a couple of spirits stick close to Aaron and Nicky while he took his spot near Neil and Kevin before they were once more out in the hall.

Wymack led with Abby and Bee on either side of him, and Dan and Matt not far behind. Next was Nicky, Aaron and Erik where Andrew could keep watch over them, then him with Kevin and Neil, and Allison and Renee at the back (he at least mostly trusted Renee behind him, and knew Allison was an adequate fighter).

Once they left the wing where their rooms were located, he immediately noticed an increase of guards and people – he didn’t know if Nathan’s little ‘visit’ last night had anything to do with all the Fae standing about in green and white with their halberds or not, the incident at the banquet or if the High Court had figured out that maybe it wouldn’t be a peaceful case they were going to hear. Or perhaps Bee had been right about some of the guests being displeased over the fact that goblin fruit had been served so surreptitiously at the banquet.

Andrew also noticed how some of the Fae, the _Unseelie_ Fae, paid close attention to Neil, how a few of them (a Bean-Sidhe, a couple of Selkies, a Glaistig) even bowed their heads to him when he walked past. Neil didn’t notice a thing, not with Jorea whispering in his ear and Danseur tugging on the sleeve of his left arm, but Andrew did, and so did Renee when he glanced back over his shoulder, judging from the solemn nod she gave him.

The spacious room where the High Court heard and settled disputes was the most ostentatious one yet that Andrew had seen at the knowe, was marble gleaming so bright it was almost blinding with enchanted 'fairy' lights which sparkled and danced with pale green flames, was a wide swathe of floor leading to a dais where the High Court sat with rows of seating on either side and galleries above. There were rows of guards as well, as if the Fae didn't expect a peaceful day ahead of them, and the ones by the door were quick to surround Neil as close as they dared with the shadow wolves by his side.

"Nathaniel Wesninski, you will come with us."

Neil motioned for Andrew to stay where he was as he went off with the guards, his head held high and his right hand on Ombré’s nape as the mutts flanked him as an honor guard of sorts, as the pixies flew around him in a flurry of colorful wings and scattered dust which glittered in the brightness of the grand hall. Andrew noticed the attention focused on him, noticed the growing number of heads which bowed to the idiot in passing - and he wasn't alone. Beside him, Wymack's mouth tightened and Bee's eyes narrowed, while on the dais several of the elder Fae went still.

The question was, did their realization that Neil was more than just a pureblood child of Firstborns work for the idiot or against him?

The guards took Neil up to the front, to a special section marked off with runes that at first glowed and then sputtered out as Neil stood in the center of them while a slight smile curved Neil's lips and the wolves sat around him; the spell (containment, most likely) was probably too specific for it to work against the gauntlet.

While that went on, the remaining guards motioned for Wymack and Bee to move forward since they had the thankless task of defending the idiot, while the rest of the Foxes were seated off to the left in the front row where Andrew could see a couple of the pixies settle on Neil's shoulders and some even on the wolves' backs, how Neil had a hint of that cruel smile on his face which he'd learned from his father - a mask he wore to hide the anxiety and faint ball of fear growing inside of him.

Andrew allowed his magic to flare up, which drew Neil's attention to him so he could give the idiot an even look long enough for Neil's emotions to settle down, for the fear to weaken.

At least until the Moriyamas and Wesninski arrived, a crowd of bad attitude and dark colors with Tetsuji and Nathan in the lead. Kevin stiffened on the bench beside Andrew and took to clenching and unclenching his left hand as he stared at his former 'Master'. Meanwhile, Andrew noticed the crowds' reaction to the three men leading the various Fae to the front of the court, noticed the lack of respect granted to them, the unbowed heads, the outright fear and hatred especially as Nathan walked past.

The guards ensured that they stayed to the right side of the court, but Riko sent a lingering look Kevin's way, which made the Tuatha de Danann at first flinch before he sat up straighter on the padded bench. The look turned into a sneer as he glanced at Andrew, who merely gazed back with indifference while on his left, Aaron muttered about 'assholes' beneath his breath.

Once everyone was more or less settled in their spots, a tall Tuatha de Danann dressed in dark green velvet robes embroidered with white Celtic knots stepped forward on the dais, her long pale blue hair sweeping the floor behind her. “We have convened today to give judgement on one of our own, the Unseelie Nathaniel Wesninski. Tetsuji Moriyama of Evermore, what are the charges brought forth against him?” she asked without introducing herself, keeping to the unity of being of the High Court; Andrew had grown bored of hearing about their traditions and shit within an hour of Kevin’s ramblings over a week ago; all he cared about was that she would be the mouthpiece of the High Court for the day.

Tetsuji gave her a slight bow of his head as he stood in front of the dais dressed in fine black garments decorated with thin lines of red thread and even a cane held in his left hand. “We are asking that Nathaniel be remanded into our custody due to the reduced mental capacity on his part.” Neil’s back straightened at that for a few seconds while a couple of pixies hissed in Tetsuji’s direction in manifest dislike, even Nuit bared his teeth at the Tengu. “It’s evident that his mother wasn’t in her right mind when she took him, a child, from his father and-“ Tetsuji made a show of pressing his lips together as he gestured to a glaring Neil with his right hand. “You can see what has happened to him. He needs to be with his father, with people who can tend to him properly, not some delusional Fae who believes that because he takes in any other stray he can deal with this young man’s issues.”

Andrew felt a spike of pain and caught sight of Neil biting into his full bottom lip in an effort to keep from letting his temper get the better of him, of spouting off whatever shit came to the tip of his fool tongue – and that usually was a bunch of stinging insults. So he ignored the ache and mentally willed the idiot to behave for once while Wymack took to glowering at Tetsuji and Bee shook her head.

“Delusional my _ass_ ,” Wymack said in a low growl while Dan stomped her feet and grinned, which made a couple of the old farts on the dais glare her way while the Tuatha de Danann gave Wymack a reproachful look.

“You will refrain from speaking until the other party is finished,” she ordered, and after Wymack huffed as he folded his bare arms over his chest, resumed looking at Tetsuji. “It seems to us that Nathaniel does not prefer to be in your care.”

Tetsuji glanced at a slightly smirking Nathan before he resumed speaking. “Nathaniel’s mother has poisoned him against his father and his father’s allies.”

Andrew doubted it was coincidence, Pilier’s loud snort just then.

The Fae gave the shadow wolf a narrow look for a moment, but all it did was stare back with those eerie black eyes until she glanced away. “We see. Is there anything else you would like to state before the High Court?”

Tetsuji shared a brief look with Nathan before he continued. “Just that Nathaniel is a very disturbed, very powerful young man, which isn’t a good combination. Not only can he traverse the shadows, but nothing seems able to ward him out.” He paused for what was obviously dramatic effect as he gave Nathan a pointed look then gazed at Neil. “Add to the enhanced ability he gained from his mother the magic of his father’s bloodline, and he is the embodiment of many a Fae’s worst nightmare.”

That time Andrew scoffed along with Pilier’s snort, but before the Fae spokeswoman could give both of them a quelling look, someone from the upper right gallery called out what most of the Foxes had to be thinking at the moment.

“So why in all the heavens would we want him in _your_ hands?” the derisive voice asked, while several others echoed their agreement.

The head judge or whatever frowned up at the gallery while Riko glared, Nathan’s smile twitched the slightest bit, Tetsuji clutched at his cane and Andrew swore he caught a flash of a smile on Jean’s face before it resumed its blank expression. “The audience will be quiet,” the Tuatha de Danann called out before she resumed gazing at Tetsuji. “Is there anything else?”

“Oberon entrusted what was at the time the only Folús Sidhe into my care,” he said while Nathan’s smile was wiped clean away, only to be replaced by something cold. “It’s only fitting that I am responsible for this one, too.”

“Do not be so presumptuous,” the woman warned as she gave the Tengu a frosty look before she turned her attention to Wymack. “David Wymack of the Foxhole Court, what do you say to the charges that you have accepted an oath from a person of dubious mental capability?”

There was a motion from one of the upper galleries, and Andrew looked up to see Stuart leaning down as if to get a better glimpse of Neil; the Scáth Sidhe was dressed in dark grey and blue and didn’t appear happy at the moment.

“I say that-,“ Wymack cleared his throat when Bee seemed to step on the toes of his left foot for a moment, “ah, it’s entirely untrue.” He jerked his right hand through his grizzled hair as he appeared to struggle for his thoughts as if to remember what had been drilled into his head by Bee, Kevin and Abby. “Neil came to my knowe bearing wounds he gained while at Evermore and we offered him sanctuary, a safe place to stay while he healed.” That skirted around the fact that Neil had been _trapped_ there while he healed, but as long as no one asked about it, they should be good. “He was beaten, starved and desperate to not be hurt again, but there was never anything mentally wrong with the kid.”

Again, skirting the truth a bit since Neil was an idiot at the best of time, but he at least knew what he was doing when he swore the oath to Wymack.

“If I may?” Bee waited until the Tuatha de Danann acknowledged her; Andrew noticed that while Tetsuji and Wymack had talked, several of the Fae sitting up on the dais were studying Neil, were watching how he stood there and fought to control himself as Tetsuji insulted him and his mother, watching how the wolves nudged him in an effort to placate him and the pixies took to whispering in his ear and tugging on his hair.

So they noticed when the gauntlet spread to cover more of his arm, just another couple of inches as it reacted to his distress and peeked some more past the cuff of his shirt, noticed how it moved with his limb like a second skin. Andrew had to wonder how many of the old fucks had been around to see it on Maeb’s hand and wrist. One Fae in particular, a Merrow with dark green hair streaked with white and green skin speckled with blue scales even in her more ‘human’ form, paled at the sight of the silver overtaking Neil’s tan skin then jerked back to attention at the sound of Bee’s voice.

“David has done nothing but given Nathaniel a home, a place where he feels safe and can be himself, where he can leave at any time,” the Leannan Sidhe declared. “Can Tetsuji Moriyama swear before this court that he will provide the same? That neither he nor anyone sworn to him has never raised a hand nor cast a spell to harm Nathaniel – or Neil, as he prefers to be called?” She paused to cast a significant gaze to a grim-face Tetsuji. “What Tetsuji Moriyama calls sign of Neil’s ‘unstable’ mind is merely a show of what lengths the young man will go to stay out of both his father’s and the Lord of Evermore’s hands. Ask Neil himself and you’ll see there’s nothing wrong with him, other than a long established pattern of abuse perpetrated by the people who seek to control him.” Bee paused again for a moment. “To control his magic.”

The gathered audience murmured over her remarks while Riko glared with open hatred at Bee and several of the Fae on the dais shifted about as if uncomfortable. All the while, Neil stood in front of everybody with his head slight bowed and shoulders pulled forward as if to make himself a little smaller, a little less noticeable, definitely uncomfortable to be the focus of everyone’s attention.

“And what say you, Nathaniel?” the High Court’s mouthpiece finally asked.

Kevin sucked in his breath as Neil raised his head, but for once Neil seemed to think about what he was going to say before speaking. “It’s as Betsy said, I don’t want anything to do with my father or the Moriyamas. I went to the Foxhole Court because I knew Abby, a healer, was there and had the things I needed to get better. Needed for me to heal because of what Tetsuji and Riko had done to me.” A bit of the hatred he felt for the men crept into his voice then, but he shook his head a little in an attempt to control himself as Nuit and Ombré bared their teeth in the Tengus’ direction. “Wymack offered me sanctuary and eventually a place to stay, and I accepted it because I knew I wouldn’t be left in peace unless I aligned myself with a knowe.”

“You can’t trust what he says, it’s obvious that they’ve trained him well for today,” Riko called out.

Anger flared over the bond while the pixies hissed at Riko and Neil turned to give the asshole that cruel smile. “You of all people should know how ‘untrainable’ I am, considering how much you tried to get me to obey.” Then his expression hardened as he once more faced the Tuatha de Danann. “My mother wasn’t mad or deranged or anything they’re slandering her with, she was merely desperate to keep us both from my father’s abuse and me from being handed over to the Moriyamas. She also didn’t do this,” he waved his hand at his face, “to me. All she ever did was warn me about spending too much time on the Dark Road, but after her death at my father’s hands, I saw no reason to listen to her any longer.”

That prompted another burst of activity from the crowd, people murmuring about ‘the Butcher’ from what Andrew could catch, but the guards motioned for everyone to quiet while the High Court’s spokeswoman called for it as well. “That is a serious charge you bring forth,” she said to Neil. “Your mother’s death was announced through the closure of her knowe, Night’s Haven, but the cause was never known.”

“The cause is standing before you,” Neil said with heavy sarcasm while his father looked on and smiled.

“See, it’s as I said, he’s utterly delusional and deranged,” Tetsuji insisted. “Do you want someone as weak-hearted as David Wymack to be in control of a dangerous creature such as this?”

“My foot in your duplicitous ass will show you how ‘weak-hearted’ I am,” Wymack stated, which made Betsy sigh yet several Foxes cheer in approval.

“Gentlemen,” the spokeswoman reprimanded the two of them along with a reproving look before she returned her attention to Neil. “Do you have any proof other than your word? Anyone who will speak for you?”

Of course the idiot didn’t – from what he’d told Andrew, it had just been him and his mother against Nathan and his people. It had always been Neil and Mary against Nathan and his people, which was why they’d always been on the run, always been hurt, always been driven to such desperate actions. Why Neil bore so many scars, why he was so fucked up and had turned to the Dark Road, why he was even _Neil_ and not Nathaniel anymore.

So Andrew wasn’t the only one surprised when Neil shook his head and said ‘no’, that Kevin stood up to spoke. “Actually, there is a way to prove what Neil said.”

While Neil (and everyone but Bee, oh what had she and the coward been up to, hmm?) looked at Kevin in astonishment, Riko sneered at him instead. “Oh Kevin, I know how hard it must be for you, to not take part of the important things, to be included, but this doesn’t concern you. Just sit down and be quiet.”

Kevin flushed at that, but for once he didn’t cower from Riko, didn’t bow down but clenched his left hand in a fist again and met Riko’s dismissive look with a challenging one of his own. “No,” he told Riko, and a faint bloom of amusement filled Andrew at the way Riko’s face twisted in first disbelief and then rage upon hearing that.

Then Kevin bowed his head at the spokeswoman before he stepped forward. “There is a way for Neil to prove who killed his mother – and that’s by having his mother speak for herself,” he explained.

And just like that, all amusement was gone as Andrew felt the urge to throttle a certain coward as his suspicions grew on where Kevin was leading with things. Meanwhile, Neil felt a sharp stab of sorrow and pain while he shook his head.

“That’s not possible,” Tetsuji declared while Nathan’s smug smile slipped away once again.

“I have to agree,” the Tuatha de Danann said as she gave Kevin a disapproving look. “Mary Hatford of Night’s Haven, of the Scáth Sidhe, has been gone for over a century. How would you call her back?”

“Two of her blood are here, and supposedly her killer,” Kevin answered. “A powerful necromancer has all the hooks he needs to pull her soul back.”

No, not quite, damn it. Andrew’s brows drew together as he caught his brother looking at him in contemplation, as he felt a faint spark of hope in Neil. A Fae soul was nothing like a human soul – a _Fae_ was nothing like a human. Fae bodies disappeared shortly after a Fae died, even changelings, leaving nothing for him to summon or control, and he’d never been able to summon a Fae or changeling soul after a set amount of time, after a few weeks, because something seemed to draw them ‘away’. They didn’t tend to stick around like human souls did for some reason.

So why the hell did Kevin and Bee think he could do this?

While the spokeswoman went over to the other members of the High Court to discuss and Tetsuji raised his voice to protest, Bee approached Andrew with a solemn expression on her face. “You can do this,” she told him, her voice little more than a whisper. “I know you can.”

He scoffed at that, which made Aaron frown even as his brother leaned forward to better hear what they were saying. “No one can, she’s been dead too long.”

“She died in a bad way, an unsettled way,” Bee argued. “And there’s you and Neil, the bond between you two.” She gave a pointed look at where the torc was hidden beneath his shirt. “It’s the two of you.”

He gave her a cold look for that. “And they think Neil’s the delusional one,” was all he said, while his brother’s expression turned too thoughtful.

Meanwhile, the old fucks on the dais seemed to come to some sort of conclusion since their mouthpiece split off and approached Kevin and Neil once more. “You feel it can be done?”

“You can’t honestly expect-“

She did something with the flick of her right fingers to silence Tetsuji. “There should be no objection to letting the dead speak. Now, can it be done?”

Kevin nodded while Tetsuji and Riko glared, along with many of their party except for Nathan, who was oddly blank-faced. “Andrew is a powerful necromancer.”

Andrew was going to kick someone’s ass for dragging him into this mess. Oh, how sad, someone’s vodka stash getting all broken as soon as they returned to the knowe.

“Then let him begin.” She looked up at the gallery. “Stuart Hatford of Shadow’s Edge, will you assist in this endeavor?”

A moment later the Scáth Sidhe appeared out of the shadows a few feet away on the court floor. “Yes, I will.” He gave a look of pure loathing toward Nathan Wesninski before he hurried to stand as close as he dared to Neil with the shadow wolves clustered around his nephew.

Well, if the prick was so eager…. Andrew sighed as he stood up and went over to join the cluster-fuck waiting to happen. It didn’t help that Wymack grunted as he approached then said, “about time you do something for once.”

Andrew didn’t care that they were assembled in front of some of the oldest and most powerful Fae in North America, he gave the old man the finger and had one of the spirits smack Kevin on the back of the head. “What the hell do you expect me to do?” he asked as he reached into his pocket to pull out his pack of cigarettes.

“Use your… relationship with Neil to call back his mother’s soul,” Kevin said, which wasn’t very helpful at all and earned him another smack. While the coward cursed him, Andrew lit the cigarette and went over to Neil, ignoring the indignant look he received from the mouthpiece upon blowing out some smoke, and eyed the idiot for a moment.

The scent of burning tobacco seemed to calm Neil down for some reason, and the wolves allowed Andrew to come in close. Neil gave him a wan smile, weary from being put through the wringer and the strain of everything showing in the tense set of his body and the growing circles beneath his eyes. Andrew reached out to pluck a lilac bloom which was falling out of his hair and refused to show any emotion when Neil shivered a little as his fingers brushed along the elegant sweep of Neil’s right ear for a second. “You okay with this?”

“Yes,” Neil breathed out. “If it makes him pay, then yes.” The sorrow and pain were still there, but there was a sense of determination as well.

Jorea chittered away in Pixish for a moment, which made Neil’s smile strengthen. “They’re underestimating us,” he whispered to Andrew. “A changeling and a runner.”

“So time to prove them wrong, huh?” Andrew held out his right hand, the lilac bloom still in his palm, for Neil to hold. “You can hold on to your uncle,” he called out.

“Not in any hurry to hold hands with a little shit like you,” Stuart called out as he sidled a little closer to Neil, his grey eyes leveled on Pilier and Danseur with plain apprehension. Neil seemed to take pity on him and held out his left hand, no emotion showing on his face at the slight discomfort he felt when his uncle accepted it.

Andrew gave Neil’s right hand a gentle squeeze before he took one more drag of the cigarette then closed his eyes and focused on his talent, on the magic that had become such an intrinsic part of him. As the grounding scent of freshly turned earth and ivy filled his senses, he filled his mind with what he knew about Mary Hatford, of Neil’s mother. A woman who could walk the shadows, a woman who had to be of slight build like her son and brother, who could somehow stomach the Butcher long enough to give him a son, to teach that child curses and hexes, to run and fight.

He reached out with his magic when he thought he had a good enough idea of the soul he wanted, reached out for that soul and along the insidious bond he shared with Neil, the bond which allowed him to feel the shadow walker’s emotions, which allowed him to keep a magical leash on Neil. He reached along it and gave a slight ‘poke’ until Neil’s magic responded, a rush of heady roses and a more autumnal scent of leaves, and a moment later there was another scent of magic, of something faint yet floral and fennel.

As Stuart’s magic joined in as well, Andrew pushed harder, pushed _farther_ , pushed to call back Mary from wherever her soul had gone, sought to bring her to him. He felt something begin to coalesce in his mind, a few wisps begin to form together when there were raised voices as if far away, was something that threatened to break his concentration, and then the strong scent of sweet broom and cherries washed over him, the bright flare of Kevin’s magic and the noise went away.

With that gone, Andrew gave everything one last push so he could latch onto that ball of wisps and then pulled back, pulled back to the sense of Neil in his head, his being, only to find himself back in front of the High Court with Neil’s fingers intertwined with his own as he gasped for breath, the cigarette now on the floor. Pain/grief/shock tore into him as Neil stood unmoving and unblinking as he gazed at the faint image hovering a few feet away.

Andrew had been right in thinking that Mary Hatford would resemble Neil – she was a slight woman, though her long hair fell in loose waves around her sharp features and it was difficult to tell her coloring when she was a washed out, see-through image. At the moment she was staring back at Neil with a hunger so acute that Andrew would shove the idiot behind him if the woman wasn’t immaterial, but there wasn’t anything she could do to her son as she was, when she was a spirit. When Andrew had complete control over her.

“Fuck me, he did it,” Matt said with heavy reverence, a comment which was echoed in various iterations through the crowd. Judging from the looks on Nathan’s and Tetsuji’s faces, they weren’t happy with Andrew just then, oh no. Andrew would shed a tear for them, except he was a little exhausted at the moment and, hmm, there was that whole thing about them being utter pricks, too.

“Mary,” Stuart said, his voice a hoarse whisper as he gazed at his sister with evident pain. “Oh Mary, what did that bastard do to you?”

It was then that Andrew took in how haggard Mary appeared, the way she looked worn down to the bone, and there was a hole in the old-fashioned dress she was wearing right around where her liver would be if she were still alive.

“Do not be leading the… ah, no leading questions,” the mouthpiece stated as she seemed to recover herself. “We are in agreement that this is Mary Hatford Wesninski of Night’s Haven?”

“It’s my sister, I can feel it,” Stuart said while Neil nodded, his motions slow with shock.

“How we know it’s not a trick? A mere changeling shouldn’t be able to do something like this.” Riko sneered once more, that time at Andrew.

For his part, Andrew didn’t pay the asshole any attention as he gazed at Nathan instead. “I swear on my blood that it’s her and I only called her back here to tell the truth. What about you, Wesninski? _Is it your wife_?”

Nathan bared his teeth as the torc warmed around Andrew’s throat, as the magic forced the Folús Sidhe’s lips to move. “Damn you, it’s the bitch. It’s her.”

“Don’t,” Neil commanded in a rough voice as he shifted forward with the shadow wolves moving with him, the pixies fluttering in the air as their high-pitched voices provided a furious buzz; Andrew realized that they were still holding hands and finally let go. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

“Why?” Nathan’s knife-edged smile returned as he regarded his enraged son while even Lola and Malcolm appeared anxious about the mutts. “It’s the truth. Don’t you want the truth, Junior? You and the half-blood rat at your side?”

“I want everyone here to know about how you shoved a knife of iron into her,” Neil was all but shouting. “How we’ve left blood and names behind all over the mortal world and Fae realm in an effort to escape you, to escape your blades and curses and only ended up with all these scars to show for it, scars and a pyre by the ocean for her!” While he raged at his father, Mary shimmered about as if buffered by her son’s intense emotions, her eyes once more fixed on him as if he was the only thing that mattered. Andrew also noted how the rest of his spirits stayed far away from Mary’s shade.

It was oddly quiet in the huge hall, an oppressive tension in the air as if people were waiting for something to be set off, for something to happen next and so were afraid to breathe too deeply or even move. Not even Riko budged at all while he stared at Neil as if the idiot was some unknown creature, while Kevin stood in front of Wymack and Bee as if to shield them from something.

The Tuatha de Danann stirred a little as she held up her right hand. “Nathaniel, you should-“

“ _No_ ,” Neil said, his voice thick with emotions and his magic flaring as more pixies appeared from somewhere, as the gauntlet extended to fully encompass his right hand and forearm, as it glowed and burned away at the sleeve of his shirt until it was left exposed to everyone’s sight. “ _He’ll be quiet while she speaks, you all will. She deserves this_.”

Wymack took to wiping at his face in that way of his when he knew his people were doing something insane yet he wouldn’t stop, Bee’s expression was unreadable and Kevin… well, he wasn’t panicking so that was good. Stuart appeared desperate for a drink or something, while the spokeswoman was more than a little shocked just then, from the way she stared at Neil with her mouth wide open. So were some of the other old fucks, while some of them were once more studying Neil with too much intention.

As for Nathan and Tetsuji and the rest of the pricks… well, the idiot had just dug the hole that much deeper, hadn’t he? The only one who didn’t look at him with either hunger, anger, shock or hatred just then was Jean, who couldn’t exactly mask the pity he felt for Neil with indifference.

The pity was probably well-deserved because someone had to be an idiot to not connect the dots after that display, to not figure out what the gauntlet was and what it meant, Neil wearing it. Still, all Andrew did was reach out to give his idiot’s nape a gentle squeeze. “So shut up and let her speak.”

There were a few loud, indignant gasps around the hall but some of the tension left Neil’s lean body as he turned his head in Andrew’s direction. “I… okay.”

The Tuatha de Danann seized the opportunity to resume the farce of a trial and waved her hand about because of all the damn pixie dust in the air. “Mary, can you hear me? Mary? Andrew, ask her about her death.”

Annoyed at that but wanting to just wrap things up, Andrew crossed his arms over his chest and sent a bit of his power to the spirit so the others could hear her speak. “ _Mary, tell us how you died_.”

Mary was still at first and then shifted about a little to look at Nathan, her expression baleful as old Fae poured forth; Andrew was caught off-guard by that, but then again, he’d never called back a Fae spirit like Mary’s before, one gone for so long.

He might not have a clue what she was saying, but it was evident that Neil, Kevin, Stuart and the High Court did, along with Nathan and Tetsuji and a few others out in the audience. He could also pick up on a faint sense of hatred from the spirit, a testament to the amount of emotion she must have felt for her husband while alive, along with the pain, fury and sense of vindication which poured off of Neil.

It was clear that Nathan, Lola, Stuart and Riko wanted to speak up, to say something during Mary’s testimonial, but whatever Neil had done a few minutes ago seemed to have rendered them mute – them and everyone else. So Andrew reached out to flick at Pilier’s ears (which made the large shadow wolf whap him in the legs with its tail in retaliation) and have his spirits check out what was happening in the rest of the knowe (not much other than the staff busy at work on the big dinner/event later that night) while Mary rambled on.

When the spirit finally fell silent, several Fae jerked about in their eagerness to speak again.

“You trust the word of a dead woman summoned by a changeling?” Tetsuji argued.

“I’m thinking Mary didn’t have anything nice to say about her ex-husband, yes?” As always, Wymack was the master of understatement.

“You fucking bastard, I will make the rest of your pathetic life miserable as fuck, I swear it upon the stars in the heavens,” Stuart gritted out, showing that Neil got his dramatic streak from his mother’s side of the family.

“Go ahead and try,” Nathan taunted back, but his smile seemed a little too forced at the moment.

“Enough, gentlemen,” the mouthpiece called out, her voice possessing a sharp edge as she held up her hands. “You heard the necromancer swear to have her tell the truth, and the truth is what we got.”

“As if we can trust anything from the Foxhole Court.” Riko motioned to their side of the hall as he grimaced, his expression one of disgust. “Wymack takes in the Fae’s rejects and defects, they’ll do anything he asks of them.”

Wymack would have rushed forward if it wasn’t for Bee’s hand on his left arm. “You don’t insult my people, you damn tick-infested chicken.”

Riko gave him a patronizing smile which made Andrew want to break the prick’s neck. “Losers, every last one of them, which is why you snatched up Kevin and Nathaniel, even as broken as they are. It’s the only chance you had of laying claim to Fae of real potential, but they’re not yours.”

Before Neil could spit out whatever was building inside of him, Kevin spoke up first. “We’re not yours, either. Neither of us ever swore to you, were ever Moriyama.” He held his left hand up in the air. “We’ve got the scars to prove it.”

“Don’t, Kevin,” Riko warned as his veneer of smugness cracked. “Think before you speak.”

“Or what, you’ll break his other hand?” Neil taunted. “Torture him? Torture me? Why don’t you try something new, you over-privileged-“

As amusing as it would be to hear Neil tear into the asshole, Andrew muzzled the idiot before he went too far by cupping his hand over Neil’s mouth. “What did I say about idiots being seen and not heard?” When Jorea and a couple of other pixies hissed at him in displeasure, he gave them a level look. “Is he complaining?”

Considering that the mutts weren’t tearing into Andrew, nor was Neil biting into Andrew’s palm or panicking, Jorea made a high-pitched grumbling sound then flitted around fast enough to blast dust in Andrew’s face. As he sputtered and pulled away, amusement flowed into him.

“No,” Neil said as Andrew wiped at his face and contemplated at tearing apart fragile wings. “Leave her be.”

They’d revisit the topic later, when they weren’t in the middle of… whatever. Meanwhile, Wymack was once again going after Riko. “Leave my people the hell alone.”

“They’re not ‘your’ people, they’re-“

Andrew had enough. “ _Tell everyone why you won’t let them go_.”

Riko paused for a moment as if offended at being spoken to by a ‘lowly changeling’, and then the magic took hold. “Because they’re too valuable, too powerful, and-“ Before a wild-eyed Riko could continue, Lola hit him with some sort of hex which locked up his entire body.

“Well someone’s like a baby with a new toy, aren’t they?” Lola asked in that syrupy sweet fake voice of hers. “Just love to play with it, don’t you?”

Andrew merely held her gaze for a couple of seconds. “Want to go another round?”

Before she could respond, the mouthpiece spoke up. “We have heard enough. The High Court will now convene and render judgement tomorrow.” She gave Neil a pointed look. “Until that time, you will remain within the knowe at all times and not use your shadow walking talent to leave.”

Neil frowned at that, but he accepted it in a quiet voice while Riko stared at Andrew with open loathing. The Tuatha de Danann made sure to gain everyone’s agreement that they would remain in the knowe and honor the court’s decision before she returned to the dais.

“Andrew.” Neil gave his sleeve a slight tug before he glanced at his mother’s spirit, where Stuart was still standing. His emotions took on the sorrowful turn once more as they went over there with Kevin trailing along. “You’re going to release her now?”

“I’ll give you another minute.” He couldn’t keep her much longer, not with all the energy he was expending on her, but it looked as if Stuart had been talking to her; the other thing was, Andrew didn’t know just how much ‘Mary’ was really there. She’d obviously retained memories of her death since it had been the last thing to happen to her, and Neil was important to her, but he didn’t expect everything to be ‘there’ with the spirit. That might have something to do with Stuart’s frustrated expression.

Mary’s pale eyes focused on Neil and she began to speak, her voice faint and the words still in old Fae, while the sorrow grew stronger inside of Neil along with something that might be love if it wasn’t laden with so much guilt and wistfulness and pain. Andrew didn’t doubt that Neil loved his mother, it was just obvious that the relationship between the two had been complicated as hell.

As soon as she fell silent, Neil bowed his head and answered in old Fae, a flare of defiance burning through some of the sorrow while Stuart cursed beneath his breath. Mary appeared angry about something, but after a few seconds her expression softened a little and she held up her semi-transparent right hand. Neil’s face twisted with grief as he held up his hand to hers, but they were unable to touch and Ombré for some reason stepped forward with her teeth bared at the spirit. Mary frowned at the shadow wolf as Andrew cleared his throat; he had to agree with the mutt that it was time enough for the Fae to return to… well, wherever she’d been.

“Neil.”

“I know,” the idiot said, his voice rough with the emotions battering him and Andrew both. “Send her away, maybe she can rest in peace this time.” Beside him, Stuart rubbed at his now red eyes as he said one last thing to his sister in old Fae.

All it took was a thought on Andrew’s part and Mary faded away, but it never was that easy, was it? She was one of the dead once more, but she’d done enough to Neil – no, she _hadn’t_ done enough _for_ Neil. Hadn’t protected him enough, hadn’t taken him from his father soon enough, hadn’t told him enough about the Dark Road and what he really was.

Stuart seemed to agree as his curses turned vicious for a few seconds before he turned to face his nephew. “Look, Nathaniel, you and I need to talk.” He gave the gauntlet on Neil’s right arm a pointed look for a moment, that and the shadow wolves before he looked Neil in the eye. “I know there’s a lot going on, but come find me before you leave.”

At least the prick seemed ready to talk and not just yell at Neil, which Neil appeared to recognize. “All right, I will.” Neil hesitated for a moment. “I… I still have it, the watch you gave her. She kept it the entire time.”

Stuart’s expression twisted with grief for a moment before he caught himself. “So damn stubborn. She-“ He rubbed at his eyes and took a deep breath. “Come talk to me, kiddo, it’s important.” For a moment he took an abortive step toward Neil with his arms outstretched, but Neil flinched and Nuit bared his teeth, so Stuart gave him a sad smile. “We’ll talk.” Then he stepped back into a shadow and disappeared.

Now that the spirit and her brother were gone, the rest of the Foxes approached the three of them. “Okay, that was, uhm, yeah, what the hell was that?” Nicky asked as he looked back and forth between Andrew and Neil.

“Yes, since when could you call forth a Fae spirit like that?” Aaron asked, for once more thoughtful than jealous. “And were you doing something at the end there, casting some sort of truth spell?”

“Andrew’s always been very clever,” Renee said in a rush as she clapped her hands together. “Kevin, you were very brave today!” It wasn’t a subtle redirect, but it worked.

“Yes, I’m proud of you, son,” Wymack said, which for some reason flustered Kevin, brought a red flush to his dusky cheeks. “I’m proud of all of you for not letting those bastards walk all over you yet not playing into their hands.” He gave a pointed look to Neil, who was hugging the shadow wolves for comfort.

It looked as if Matt wanted to go over to hug the idiot, but Abby beat him to it; Neil looked up at her approach and the shadow wolves didn’t react as she gently grasped his face between her hands. “You did well today. That had to be difficult, to see your mother like that.”

“Ah, yu-yeah.” As always, Neil was left flustered by Abby’s concern and affection, to the point that there was a pulse of his magic for a moment as if he was tempted to flee through the shadows much like Stuart had but then he must have remembered his oath to the High Court. “But, ah, I’m fine.”

How Andrew hated it when the idiot said those words.

He also hated the tiny curl of jealousy in his stomach at how Abby could touch Neil like that, how Neil was allowing someone close if only for a couple of seconds – even if it was _Abby_ of all people.

“I should hope that things are now more than ‘fine’,” Bee said as she glanced around the grand hall which was almost empty. “We presented a strong case and even managed to hurt Wesninski. I don’t want to try to predict the High Court, but we should have tipped things in our favor.”

‘Should’ have.

Bee seemed to have picked up on Andrew’s doubts since she gave him a mocking smile. “That said, everyone needs to remain on their best behavior until they present their verdict.” Her smile faded away as she regarded the Foxes, especially Neil. “No fighting, no reacting to what I’m certain will be attempts to swing things back in the Moriyamas’ favor. There will be another banquet tonight and as much as I’d like to suggest for us to remain in our rooms, we can’t show fear or weakness.”

“In other words, behave your damn selves,” Wymack growled. “The High Court was read the riot act by at least four different knowes over the goblin fruit and swore to me that there wouldn’t be any more served, but I wouldn’t trust them.” He gave a pointed look to Allison – at Seth’s absence at her side.

Obviously there was some way to still get the goblin fruit or else Seth would have stumbled back to them by now, so yes, Andrew and his family would continue to have the Kevin-obsessed Brownies bring them food.

Disappointment trickled over the bond he shared with Neil. “So more socializing,” the idiot sighed.

Before Andrew could respond to that, Allison did. “You don’t kick someone’s ass and then hide in the corner,” she scoffed. “You go out and do a victory dance, so put on a pair of tight leather pants for tonight.” When Neil stared at her as if she was speaking some foreign language, she grinned. “You have to look your best to rub it in all the more.”

Andrew didn’t need the image of Neil and tight leather pants in his head just then, but the confusion just then was somewhat amusing. “I just… you… uhm… _no_?” the idiot squeaked.

“Oh hell yes,” Nicky agreed while Matt appeared torn between being offended for Neil and wanting to agree as well.

“Come on, give the poor kid a break,” Dan proclaimed as she pushed a leering Nicky aside. “Wear something you’re comfortable in, okay?”

“No, wear what I tell you what to wear,” Allison immediately disagreed. “You need to make a _good_ impression tonight.” Jorea seemed to agree with her, which made Neil sigh.

“I’m sure Andrew will help him find something suitable to wear,” Renee just had to say, which earned her a flat look.

“Whatever, can we leave now?” There was a desperate note in Kevin’s voice just then, a sure sign that he was in need of a shot – or bottle – of alcohol.

“Yes,” Andrew said as he latched on to an idiot’s remaining sleeve. “We need to find a pair of leather pants.”

Kevin wasn’t the only one who appeared in need of liquid courage just then. “I deeply regret ever leaving the Dark Road,” Neil declared out loud to no one in particular as he was led toward the hall’s exit.

“That makes two of us,” Aaron muttered as he followed Andrew.

“Aw come on, you’re just a little overwhelmed right now,” Matt said in an effort to cheer up the idiot. “We’ll get some of that weird fruit in you and you’ll feel better. Wait until you see the party tonight, all the- well, right, you don’t do the food. But the dancing! You’ll like… okay, maybe you won’t like the dancing.” He frowned at Neil as he came along Neil’s right side as close as Pilier and Danseur allowed. “You need to learn to have some fun.”

Jorea spat something in rapid Pixish to Neil which made him smile a little. “Yes, I should be able to make some,” he told her.

“Oh hell,” Wymack muttered as he rubbed at his now furrowed brow. “How much alcohol can you get those Brownies to fetch for us?” he asked Kevin.

Well, the day seemed to have taken a turn for the better, hadn’t it? Then again, Andrew seemed to have jinxed himself with that thought because once they stepped out of the grand hall they found various Fae milling around the hallways as if waiting for them – no, waiting for Neil. Fae who bowed their heads as he walked past, who stared at the gauntlet on display with blatant awe and greed and envy.

It wasn’t just Neil, either. Tucked into the shadows had to be a good bit of the knowe’s Brownies who probably should be working, Brownies who watched with care as Kevin walked past and nodded to themselves, who whispered his name which the spirits picked up and brought back to Andrew.

There was even a guard here and there who stood up straighter as Andrew crossed his or her path, who held their weapon at the ready as a sign of respect for a _changeling_ while their partner watched on in confusion. The torc warmed at Andrew’s throat when that happened and an odd feeling fluttered in his stomach, almost like fear but not quite. He wasn’t afraid, not really, wasn’t nervous… but it was unsettling none the less.

Just like the feeling of Aaron’s gaze on his back, his twin’s attention sharpening each time something like that happened.

The Brownies better bring a lot of alcohol.

*******

Neil sat at a small table in the same banquet hall as the night before, content to be alone except for the shadow wolves. His fingers ached a little from all of the hexes he’d crafted during the time since facing the High Court and being all but dragged out to be ‘social’, his emotions still a bit unsettled because of everything that had happened earlier in the day.

Seeing his mother – well, his mother’s shade – when his last memory of her was using his magic to give her a somewhat peaceful death then burning her body on a dark beach so many years ago. Hearing her accuse his father of landing the killing blow then her chastising Neil for ignoring all the warnings about the Dark Road, for him being a fool and making himself that much more valuable to his father and the Moriyamas. It had hurt, having a part of her back and hearing those things, in realizing that she must have known something about the gauntlet and him being Maeb’s heir yet she’d never told him the truth, never told him _why_ they were running from his father.

It wouldn’t have stopped him from doing what he’d done on the Dark Road, it just would have prevented him from ever leaving it.

He would have to talk to Stuart before he left the High Court (assuming they allowed him to go back to the Foxhole Court), since if his mother had known something about the Dark Road and Maeb then his uncle probably knew things, too. Perhaps it would be too little, too late, but Neil was tired of flailing around in the dark, of being the last to know everything.

Of being the idiot Andrew claimed him to be.

Andrew… something was happening with the necromancer, something to make Andrew withdraw into himself and away from Neil as soon as they’d returned to their rooms earlier. To make him snatch up a bottle of whiskey and not even talk to his brother, cousin or Kevin. Not even talk to Renee when she tried to draw him into a conversation. His emotions had been contemplative and a little dark, so Neil had let him be, had sat on the balcony with the wolves and the pixies while he’d worked on the hexes, and had let a tipsy Kevin talk to him about the various schools of thoughts about hexes and jinxes after an hour or so since it was clear that the Tuatha de Danann was looking for some sort of distraction from his own thoughts. After a while Kevin had joined in on the hex-making, and it had become a competition of sorts to see who could make the most and come up with more unique ones at that – probably not something Wymack wanted to know, but it kept Kevin from drinking too much and both of them had enjoyed it.

Neil hadn’t many happy memories from his childhood, but the few he did were from the times when he’d ‘played’ with a young Kevin and Riko, when he’d practiced fighting and casting spells. They’d been the closest things to friends he’d had, and what had really been training for the day he’d be handed over to the Moriyamas had been enjoyable, had been an escape from his father’s ‘lessons’ and things he’d put to good use the rest of his life. It was a bit odd to find himself sitting in the High Court’s knowe with an older Kevin by his side, a Kevin who was a friend of sorts, as they made hexes for pixies.

Odd, but enjoyable. Enjoyable except for the fact that Andrew was upset about something, which made Neil upset for some reason.

So Neil hadn’t objected when Andrew had selected a pair of dark grey pants (not tight leather, thank the shadows) and a black shirt with a dark grey jerkin for him to wear (no orange or white for once) out of the ‘Allison’ approved outfits. Neil had frowned when Jorea and a couple of the pixies had put a few more flowers in his hair before flying off with the new hexes, but it was becoming something he had inured himself to, he supposed. At least with his hair pulled back and braided, it didn’t look so much like his father’s.

Once they reached the banquet hall, Andrew and Kevin had gone off toward one of the tables laden with food and beverages with Nicky and Aaron following. Neil had hesitated for a moment, but since he didn’t feel like drinking, eating was evidently out and he wasn’t sure that Andrew’s odd mood was because of him, he’d decided to find a quiet spot to sit down. He’d noticed one of Andrew’s spirits was following him, a sign that the necromancer had picked up on his absence, but it seemed that Andrew was willing to allow him his space – that or still didn’t want to deal with him.

Neil was surprised by the twinge in his chest at the thought.

He noticed the wary distance everyone gave him as he sought out a table, the way the Fae stepped aside as the shadow wolves fanned out around him. Well, the wary distance they gave the wolves, the way the Fae bowed their heads to better watch the deadly creatures as if afraid they might become prey if not careful. Neil didn’t care at the moment, only that he was left alone, and sat down at the first empty table he found – especially when he noticed the people in black and red on the other side of the room, when he could see Lola and Malcolm lurking around the table set up with what looked to be a selection of raw fish for the Merrow, Selkies and other water-attuned Fae in attendance.

Staying at a table by himself except for the ‘mythological’ death machines lying across his feet and leaning against his legs suddenly was a brilliant idea.

There were pitchers of water and bottles of wine at the table, the latter which he ignored as he poured himself some water to drink, grateful for the fruit he’d eaten before leaving the rooms; he’d be happy when they returned to the Foxhole Court and the wolves could ‘sneak’ him some of their kills once more or even better yet, when Andrew held to his part of their agreement and returned him to the Dark Road. Judging from the way that the Brownies were reacting to Kevin… they’d have to go fetch Titania’s ring as soon as they left the High Court.

Assuming that Neil wasn’t handed over to the Moriyamas.

No, he wasn’t going to think like that, wasn’t going to assume the worst for once. Even with Andrew’s odd behavior that day, somehow he didn’t think that the necromancer would just stand by and allow Tetsuji to lay claim to him, for his father to win. Worse come to worst, Neil could always go off with his uncle, could retreat to his mother’s knowe even though that would open up a new set of complications, would mean that he would have to swear oaths to the European High Court and queen and-

It was just so confusing and complicated, Fae politics. His mother had in part married Nathan Wesninski to leave behind the muddle that was Europe’s Fae world, the twisted oaths and power and politics from the Fae having lived so long there. It wasn’t much better in Asia and Africa, which was why Tetsuji had set up his knowe in North America, and Nathan moved Baiting’s End there (Mary hadn’t told Neil much about that, other than it had cost a lot of magic and blood. Somehow, Neil suspected it hadn’t cost _Nathan_ much blood).

North America didn’t have a king or queen, but it had a High Court and regional Courts, which seemed almost as bad (considering what they’d done to Andrew). More and more, Neil missed the Dark Road, missed being able to do whatever he wanted.

He missed being by himself, away from people who confused him and used him, who caused him pain and brought up things he wanted to forget, to leave behind. He missed his mother so much, missed how she had always been beside him, had pulled him along and pushed him forward and- but she was part of the pain, too.

Why was it that there was so little in Neil’s life that wasn’t tied to pain?

Ombré whined as she placed her head in his lap, her eyes huge and liquid and full of understanding. Andrew would probably mock Neil for thinking that a ‘dumb mutt’ could emote like that, but out of… well, _everything_ , the shadow wolves were basically the only thing that had been there for Neil and demanded nothing out of him, had protected him without cost and provided him warmth and affection without strings, who stood by his side without sharp blows and-

They were there for him and helped him to stand up and keep the world at bay. He wasn’t quite sure yet if the Foxhole Court would be that for him, too, even if so far it seemed… maybe.

He wasn’t quite sure yet if Andrew would be that for him, even if-

He could depend on the wolves. It seemed that he could depend on the pixies, if only because he gave them what they needed. That was something he could understand.

He couldn’t understand Andrew.

Desperate to rid his mind of the current thoughts, he rubbed at Ombré’s ears while he glanced around the room once again, and noticed that Allison was talking to Lola for some reason. The Valkyrie was wearing high heels and a dark orange spider-silk dress that showed off her impressive figure, golden skin and blonde hair to perfection (it might not move Neil at all, but he could admire the aesthetic image before him) as she gave Lola a condescending smile as they talked. Malcolm eyed her openly in a manner which made Neil want to go for the knives he’d left behind in the rooms at Kevin’s insistence and Danseur growl, while Lola gave one of her sickening sweet smiles in return as she reached out to finger the silk of Allison’s obviously very expensive dress. After a couple of seconds, Allison walked away – and after catching sight of Neil, came over to the table with sure strides which drew plenty of enviable stares.

“So here’s where you’ve taken to hiding,” she said once she was close enough that she didn’t have to shout.

He sighed at that and propped his chin up on his left hand. “I’m sitting in a huge room surrounded by shadow wolves, I don’t think I’m ‘hiding’.”

Allison grinned at that and braved those ‘shadow wolves’ to sit down at the table. “Why does everyone think you’re this fragile thing with that mouth of yours, hmm?”

Neil shrugged as he watched her grab a bottle of wine and pour a very full glass for herself. “I give up on trying to figure out people.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely not one of your strong suits.”

He hadn’t interacted very much with Allison, not when she had… something going on with Seth who was an asshole and Neil preferred to be left alone, but the few times they’d dealt with each other, Neil had come to know the Valkyrie as someone who spoke her mind. He could respect that, after dealing with people who twisted the truth to their benefit, with people who sought to hurt him. Allison didn’t pull her ‘punches’, but from what he gathered, she didn’t set out to intentionally to hurt people, either. No, she would rather that they knew where they stood with her than anything, and he could respect that, would prefer a harsh truth rather than sweet half-lie which would bite him in the end. All in all, he understood why Renee liked her and Andrew semi-tolerated her – he just didn’t understand why she seemed to have set her heart on Seth. Then again, he didn’t understand why his mother had ever married Nathan Wesninski in the first place, so….

Seth seemed a thousand times more preferable than ‘the Butcher’, so he would reserve judgement on Allison’s love life at the moment.

“At least I acknowledge my weaknesses,” he admitted.

For a moment Allison’s blue eyes narrowed, but when she realized that he didn’t mean that as a jab at her, she smiled and leaned back in her chair. “I like you,” she declared, which startled Neil. “Too many of us do the whole flowery shit.” She waved her manicured left hand in the air to indicate the Fae around them. “They twist things to get around the whole ‘truth’, say a thousand words when they could get by with three, do what they can to trap you with pretty half-truths and… bah.” She frowned and drained half of her glass of wine. “You remind me of Renee, you know.”

Neil wasn’t sure he appreciated that, considering he knew that Renee was part maenad, but then again, considering he was half Folús Sidhe…. “Actually, I think Renee has a better understanding of herself,” he could admit. She seemed to have accepted all of what she was, while he struggled with his father, his father’s magic and- maybe he should drink some wine even if it made him feel sick as well as drunk.

Allison’s expression turned oddly tender just then. “Yeah, Renee’s a sweetheart, isn’t she? She’s amazing.” Then she appeared distracted as a new song started. “Hmm, I love this song.” She stared out at the dance floor in the middle of the hall. “I want to dance. Do you want to dance?”

“Not really,” Neil said, meaning not at all.

“Dancing is fun.” Allison poured herself some more wine as she seemed to think of something. “Renee likes you, you know. So treat her well.” For a moment something hard and dark flashed in Allison’s blue eyes, a hint of her Valkyrie nature.

Neil allowed a hint of his Unseelie nature to show forth as Nuit and Pilier growled. “I didn’t realize that I was treating her otherwise.”

Allison held his gaze for a moment before she shrugged. “No, she only says good things about you, but I want to be certain. A lot of people underestimate her because she’s so kind, so willing to help everyone.” Her jaw tightened as she glanced around the room. “She does too much.”

“I don’t think Renee’s a pushover,” Neil confessed. “Anything but.” Not with that center of darkness to her.

Clear blue eyes stared at him for a moment and then Allison smiled. “I like you.”

“I believe you said that.” Neil was somewhat surprised when Danseur leaned forward to sniff at Allison’s left hand, which made her smile.

“Oh yes, they’re so much better than hellhounds.” Allison beamed as she gave a gentle rub to Danseur’s nose. “Will you eat someone for me?”

Danseur seemed to consider that while Neil groaned. “Don’t give them any ideas while we’re here, else Wymack will never shut up.”

Allison sighed at that. “Okay, I’ll wait until we leave.”

He wasn’t too surprised that the shadow wolves were friendly with Allison, a Valkyrie, and smiled a little as Allison murmured to Danseur; if anything, it made him a little happy since they would be part of the Foxhole Court.  The wolves seemed pleased when Allison talked about feeding them some tenderloin if they ate a few goblin fruit dealers for her….

Neil sipped at his water while Allison stared once more at the Fae dancing out on the ornately marbled dance floor; there was an outer ring of couples where partners switched with each new song, and an inner ring where the partners remained the same until they left the dance. To move into the inner ring was a declaration of sorts that the couple were serious about each other, were seeking some sort of permanence in their relationship. Neil wasn't surprised to see Wymack and Abby along with Matt and Dan dancing in the inner ring.

"Doesn't that look like fun?" Allison asked as she set her empty wine glass aside.

Neil assumed she meant the dancing. "Uhm... I guess." His mother had taught him the basic steps long ago, more as a distraction than anything since it wasn't like his father threw any social events at Baiting's End - or so he'd believed at the time. Now that he thought about it, she'd probably been instructed to teach him so he knew enough etiquette when he was turned over to the Moriyamas.

"You guess?" Allison arched an eyebrow at that. "It's dancing, what's not fun about that?" When all Neil did was give her a blank look in return, she sighed as she reached for the bottle of wine and filled both of their glasses, never mind that he still had a little water in his. "Listen to me, because I'm not just talking shit here, okay? I might not be closely related to Firstborns like you, but I'm a pureblood and my parents...." She paused to give a bitter laugh. "Well, they think a lot about themselves, let's just say." At his curious look, she arched an eyebrow. "I go by 'Reynolds', but I'm of the Reyneau bloodline."

"Ah." Neil gave her a slight nod as he picked up his glass. "I'm guessing there's a story there." The Reyneau family was an old, powerful and rich pureblood line.

"Yes, and if you're nice to me, I'll tell you it one night." Her glossy red lips curved into the first true smile he'd seen from her that evening. "But for now, let's just say that I... want to live on my own terms." For a moment her smile faltered and then her back straightened and her expression grew defiant as she held up her glass. "I might not always make the best decisions, but they're _mine_."

He raised his glass to that and took a sip of the wine, then winced a little at the taste of it, even watered down as it was. "To you."

"Yes, to me." Her smile returned as she accepted the toast. "Which is why I'm telling you, come out and dance with me." When his eyes widened and he shook his head, she shook hers as well. "Listen to me, I'm not asking this lightly, but you know those bastards are saying things about you, are doing their best to tear you down. So show them you're not afraid, that you're not like they say you are, and come out on that floor with me. Just one dance and we'll leave."

Neil felt torn between the impulse to pull away and what he knew made sense, especially after what had happened before the High Court earlier in the day. As Allison sat there before him with an even expression as if waiting for his answer without any expectation, he glanced back and forth between her and the dance floor.

“But-“

“It’s just a dance,” she pushed. “One dance.”

There was anxiety at the thought of being surrounded by strangers, but Allison had never done anything to upset him, to harm him, and he knew that Renee trusted her and Andrew tolerated her (well, mostly tolerated her). "One dance," he stressed.

"That's fine," she said with a smile, and laughed when he picked up the glass and forced down its contents. "I lead."

"Probably for the best," he gasped as the alcohol settled uneasily on his stomach. "It's been... well, it's been a long time since I've danced." As he stood up, his legs unsteady for a moment, he shook his head at the wolves. "You'll have to stay here."

Ombré and Danseur whined at that, and Nuit followed him for a few steps until it was clear where he was going. Allison held onto his hand lightly as they waited for a spot to open between the dancers, and for a moment Neil felt a sense of deja vu when she stood in front of him with his right hand in hers and her hand gently resting on his hip; it was like all those years ago when he'd learned the steps from his mother, when she'd been taller than him and her hair still blonde, back before all the running and stress and fighting had worn her down.

He blinked back the pain and sorrow so he could focus on the thankfully simple waltz and the way Allison smiled at him in encouragement, the way she whispered the steps and swings to him. He was uncomfortably aware of the bodies around him, of Allison so close to him, the heat of her and every time they touched despite the way that she tried to keep some distance between them... but it was bearable. It was bearable because her holds on his hand and hip were loose enough that he could pull away with ease, because she looked down at him with nothing but pride and a defiance which he knew was aimed at everyone around them, was a defiance he was taking part in at the moment.

Still, the dance seemed to go on forever, even though they only completed two circuits around the floor. He could feel Allison try to lead him away as the music paused for a moment to allow new dancers to join in and for people to switch partners - but they couldn't leave the floor. At least, Allison couldn't, and something affected Neil despite the gauntlet. He drew in a sharp breath as he felt a stab of pain in his right wrist, and then someone in black and red reached for him as the dance resumed.

Neil stiffened as Jean gave him an apologetic smile for a moment, before his expression smoothed out into something more guarded. " _The floor, it's enchanted_ ," the Leannan Sidhe warned in French. " _No one can leave until it runs out, something non-specific enough that even you should be affected, especially since you willingly entered the dance ring and swore not to use the shadows_." He gave a slight squeeze to Neil's right hand. " _I... well, it is what it is_ ," he said, the closest thing to an apology he was able to say, Neil knew.

Neil also knew that he was effectively trapped, especially when he glanced around and noticed all of the other men dressed in black and red, when he caught sight of a furious Allison dancing with another Evermore knight and knew that if either of them made a scene, it would just play into Riko's plans that much more - would make Neil appear unstable and violent while the High Court were still debating his future. " _How_?" Neil asked in French. " _How did he know I'd dance_?"

" _A compulsion on the Valkyrie_ ," Jean explained. He gave Neil's hand another quick squeeze while he was mindful to otherwise not hold on to him too tight, to not hold him too close. " _You need to be more careful, to not leave any openings. They are determined to get you back one way or another, especially since I'm hearing such interesting rumors about you_." His eyes were intent as he stared down at Neil, intent and a bit worried. " _I think you have more than just them who are after you_."

Neil fought down the growing panic he felt to offer Jean a shaky smile. " _I'll be fine, and I'm never going back to Evermore again_."

" _So you say, but Riko has his own thoughts on that_." Jean pulled Neil close in a parody of an embrace so he could whisper in Neil's ear. " _Figure out something quick, little fox, or he'll make things that much more difficult for you. And I hope you know I do what I must_." He even gave a nuzzle to Neil's hair to mask what he'd been doing as the song came to an end then spun Neil away -

\- right into Rafael's arms.

Rage, hate and panic flared into Neil as he remembered those pain-filled days in the cell, as he remembered what the Gwyllion Sidhe had done to him. He had to at first push aside those overwhelming memories and then fight to urges to either flee or to use his silver-clawed fingers to tear through Rafael 's throat, to plunge deep into soft flesh and rip out chunks until Rafael fell onto the patterned floor and breathed no more.

"Problems, kitty cat?"

Old Fae rushed from Neil's tongue as the only weapon available to him at the moment, as he insulted Rafael 's lineage future and past while the Fae chuckled, his right arm tight around Neil's waist. "Oh, I miss that fire in you," Rafael crooned as he swung Neil around. "You always made things so fun, until you were too broken to move."

One flick of his finger, one twitch of a muscle and Neil could end things here, could drain the bastard dry... except that was what Riko wanted. Riko and Neil’s father, most likely, wanted him to be shown to the Fae as a crazed thing, too bloodthirsty to be trusted unless kept at the end of _their_ leash. He drew in a deep breath as he fought to hold on to his temper, to hold back the magic inside of him struggling to break free, and forced his gaze past Rafael's detested face to the crowd gathered around the dance floor, and thought he saw Kevin and Renee amongst the people. He tried to find Andrew, but Rafael spun him around again, which made him curse some more and do his best to pull away, only to be yanked back.

He doubted the spell they’d used would block him from the shadows… but that would be a black mark against him as well, if he broke his word to the High Court so he forced himself to keep dancing. "Soon enough we'll leave the High Court," he warned. "Then I won't have to hold back, me or the wolves." He managed to summon a sliver of his father's smile for the Fae.

The Gwyllion’s confidence faltered at that, but then he seemed to rally as the tempo of the song sped up. “You seem to think you’ll leave here of your own free will. You should know better by now, Nathaniel.” He jerked Neil closer as they swung around, his hand tight on Neil’s hip as revulsion twisted Neil’s insides and flooded his mouth with bile, made his skin prickle and dampen with cold sweat. “We’re going to play again real soon.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Neil promised as he fought not to carry through with the deed then and there as Rafael laughed.

“Oh yes, that wonderful spirit.” Rafael rocked his hips against Neil’s and laughed some more at the curses that action provoked. “But it seems our time has come to an end for now. Don’t worry, though, we’ll resume our playtime soon.”

“Not if you’re dead,” Neil gritted out as he yanked himself free, intent on finding someone else to dance with, _anyone_ , before another Evermore knight could latch on to him, only to find a grinning Riko waiting for him. He recoiled from the Tengu in an effort to avoid him, temper flaring once again, then found his right fist caught in a loose hold when he lashed out at being touched on his shoulder while Riko’s smirk changed into a glare.

“Yes or no?,” Andrew asked as he let go of Neil’s fist and held out his left hand in invitation to dance; Neil stared at him only for a moment before he grasped at it, convinced that things were real both by Riko’s angry hiss of his name and the mix of anger/hatred/amusement/resignation that he felt over their bond. As soon as he touched Andrew’s hand, the necromancer’s other arm slid around his waist and pulled him into the swirl of other dancers as the music resumed playing.

“What the hell did you do now?” Andrew’s voice was deep and mostly bland, but his eyes were sharp and his emotions not nearly as calm.

Neil scowled at him for that and deliberately ‘missed’ a step so he could trod upon the bastard’s left foot – it wasn’t that difficult to do since it seemed that Andrew was a beat or two behind as if he was following what everyone was doing. “Why is it _my_ fault?”

“You’re the one out here on the dance floor of all places, surrounded by Evermore assholes. What am I supposed to think?”

Okay, so maybe the bastard had a point. “They cast a compulsion on Allison and she got me out here for what was supposed to be one dance to show the High Court… something,” Neil mumbled as he did his best not to stumble against Andrew as they more or less waltzed around. “Then we found out that they hexed the floor.”

“Of course.” Andrew closed his eyes for a moment as the resignation grew stronger. “I can’t tell if you’re cursed or I am.”

“Definitely me,” Neil decided.

“Either way,” Andrew continued as if Neil hadn’t spoken, “I figured out the ‘hexed’ part when I felt you freaking out and we noticed a commotion around the dance floor. Kevin and Renee are trying to figure out how to break it, but it’ll probably take a while.”

Neil glanced over to the left, where a glowering Riko was dancing with a nervous looking Asparas and giving him a loaded look. “I don’t think we have much time.” If Riko didn’t claim him for the next dance, no doubt another Evermore knight would.

Andrew considered that for a moment, his emotions too much in flux for Neil to interpret, and then he let out a slow breath. “Don’t panic,” he said as he pulled Neil in close.

“What? What do you-“ Neil gasped as Andrew first spun them around in a smooth motion, then he realized that they were moving from the ring of outer dancers – but since they couldn’t move off of the dance floor, they moved _further_ inward. They moved to the inner circle of dancers, where one only went to show one’s status of being in what the Fae considered a _committed_ relationship.

Neil thought he felt a spark of amusement and satisfaction as Riko called out first his name and then a curse, but he was too stunned by Andrew’s actions to care that the prick’s grand plan to… to what? Trap Neil for however long the hex lasted? To push him to react, to do something foolish enough make the High Court rule in the Moriyamas’ favor? To threaten him until he gave him? Whatever the plan, Andrew had just put Neil well out of reach – but at what cost? “You shouldn’t have done that,” he gulped as the panic did indeed build.

Andrew gave a negligent shrug as he seemed to concentrate on the steps of the waltz. “He can’t bother us here, not unless he plans to go steady with Jean or some other poor soul.”

Neil flinched at the thought of Riko doing that to Jean. “No, he- I mean what about you?” He shook his head even as he sidled a little closer to Andrew, mindful of how there was less space in the center of the dance floor. “Tell me you know what this means.”

“That I’m stuck with you until those two slackers get their asses in gear and work some magic,” Andrew told him with some annoyance as the current song came to an end; they paused for a moment and stared at each other until the music started again, that time for a much slower song. Neil found it odd to be dancing with someone shorter than him for once, but there was something oddly pleasing to the feel of Andrew’s broad, firm shoulder beneath his left hand, the warmth the man radiated and the faint whiff of his magic. Unlike with the others, Neil felt himself relaxing as he spun around slowly with the necromancer even if Andrew had been upset with him a short while ago.

“But now they’re going to think you’re with me,” he argued. “Uhm, that we’re… you know, like Nicky and Erik.” He was surprised that the two men weren’t out on the dance floor as well, but assumed that they were taking advantage of an empty room and felt a bit of embarrassment at the thought.

Andrew’s hand tightened on Neil’s waist. “Is that a bad thing?”

The question confused Neil. “Ah, what about Renee?” Wouldn’t Andrew rather be out here with the naiad than with Neil? With someone he actually liked?

Andrew’s thick, pale brows drew together as he stared at Neil, who had just noticed a hint of what looked to be stubble on the necromancer’s jaw – what did that feel like to the touch? “What about Renee?”

Jolted out of his thoughts, Neil frowned at Andrew. “Don’t you want to dance with her?”

Confusion and exasperation flowed over their bond. “Fight with her, yes, but dance? No. You sure you didn’t get hit with a compulsion somehow, too? One to make you more of an idiot than normal?”

Neil's confusion grew as he stared at Andrew. "But... don't you like her?"

For a few seconds Andrew's confusion matched his own, and then weariness and resignation washed into Neil. "I tolerate Renee, I don't like her."

"But-" Neil drew in a sharp breath as Andrew swung him around in tight circles for several steps, their bodies pressed closely together by the fast motion of the dance; he waited for a sense of revulsion to come from Andrew, well aware of how the necromancer disliked allowing anyone close to him, any unwanted touches (but there had been that one night, hadn't there, a small voice reminded Neil), yet that never happened. All he sensed was a strong amount of concentration and a bit of unhappiness.

It made Neil feel unhappy, too, to think that he made Andrew unhappy.

“What about you? When did you learn to dance? The mutts teach you?”

Neil sighed at the sarcasm in Andrew’s deep voice. “No, my mother,” he told the bastard as he stepped on Andrew’s foot again. “Required pureblood training. The wolves only taught me the fastest way to rip out bothersome Fae’s throats.” Actually, his mother had taught him that, too. And his father. Neil wondered if it was an Unseelie thing or if there was something to that ‘cursed’ comment after all.

“Ah, so glad to be a mudblood changeling then,” Andrew remarked, a hint of a smile on his face when Neil looked at him in confusion. “Another series of books for your reading pile.”

“Do you delight in confounding me?” Neil asked, and only received a blank look in return.

They’d just been caught up in another dance (Neil was growing tired of dancing, something he never liked in the first place even if he found it bearable to be near Andrew) when the pixies darted into the air above them in a burst of color and noise before dumping a bunch of crushed herbs on top of them and the floor. Neil came to a halt as he brushed the herbs aside (he recognized the pale purple and blue hydrangea petals and what looked to be bamboo among the ingredients), and then Jorea was tugging on a lock of his hair as she urged him to leave the dance floor.

Judging from the distant look in Andrew’s hazel eyes, he was probably receiving a similar message from one of his spirits, and the next thing Neil knew, he was being pulled from the floor by the necromancer’s hold on his right hand. Perfectly willing to follow for once, Neil didn’t resist or try to pull free, and was grateful to leave the damn dance floor, along with several other Fae, from the looks of it. An Evermore knight tried to grab him, one he didn’t recognize, but Arrant flew over to intervene and blast the Tuatha de Danann with a heavy dose of pixie dust.

Andrew didn’t stop until they came upon a frowning Kevin and Renee with green-stained hands as if she’d been shredding plants with her bare fingers. She smiled to see them and Neil braced himself to feel some sort of reaction from Andrew, only for there to be some exasperation. “About damn time,” Andrew griped as he finally let go of Neil’s hand. “I was about to throttle this klutz if he stepped on my foot one more time – someone needs to teach him how to dance.”

“I know how to dance just fine,” Neil explained as the shadow wolves rushed over to him. “None of that was done on accident.” He smiled at that while Andrew’s displeasure washed through him. “Yes, I missed you,” he told Ombré who rubbed against his legs.

“We had to argue with them to keep them away from you, but we didn’t think they’d behave themselves so….” Renee smiled at something, and Neil glanced over his shoulder to see a furious Allison stomp toward them with her high heels held in her hands.

“All right, how the hell did that happen? One moment all I can think about is dancing and the next I’m about to break some asshole’s hand for daring to get a bit too ‘friendly’.” She gave Neil a pointed look until he sighed and shook his head.

“Somehow they got a compulsion on you to get me out on the dance floor,” he explained. “Jean told me that much.” Kevin stiffened upon hearing that, his expression darkening for some reason, while Allison’s anger seemed to melt away.

“Neil… dammit, I’m-“ Her breath caught and she appeared torn for a moment with the urge to apologize but the inability to say the words, so Neil gave her a slight smile and shook his head again.

“Beat up a few Evermore knights for me when we’re gone from here and I’ll consider us even,” he offered, and noticed how Renee relaxed for some reason while Allison smiled, confident once more.

“Oh, you don’t even have to ask, Bright Eyes, I was going to do that anyways, but for _you_ I’ll beat them up extra special.” She reached out to tap him on the tip of the nose before she waved to Renee. “Feel up to a drink? I know, just tea or something, but I don’t want to drink alone so come along, okay?” she said before Renee could speak up, and Renee smiled once more as she went along with the Valkyrie.

‘Bright Eyes’? Neil supposed it was better than some of the things he’d been called lately, but really? He sighed as he rubbed his nose and then noticed the cold look Kevin was giving him and the still displeased emotions pouring off of Andrew. “What?”

“Don’t take my fun away from me,” Andrew drawled as he lit a cigarette while Kevin’s frown deepened.

“Somehow I think there’s more than enough Evermore knights to go around,” Neil argued as he went to jerk a hand through his hair, only to remember about the damn braids at the last moment and earn a scolding from Jorea as she settled on his right shoulder.

“Like Jean?” Kevin asked, his demeanor oddly intent for some reason.

“ _No_.” That came out quick and cold as Neil glared at the Tuatha de Danann; he didn’t care about Jean’s oaths to the Moriyamas, not when he knew that the Fae hadn’t any choice in them. Not when it could easily be Neil in Jean’s place. “Not Jean.” He felt another flash of displeasure from Andrew at that, displeasure and something sharp and bitter, something that made him back away from the necromancer which only made the emotion more powerful. “What?”

“Why do you care?” Andrew asked Kevin, his voice devoid of the strange emotion filling him.

“Because Neil-“ Kevin seemed to catch himself as he pulled himself back then gazed at Neil. “Why does Jean care about you?”

That was an odd question, wasn’t it? “Because he put me back together when Riko and his men tore me apart,” Neil admitted. “Because….” No, he couldn’t tell the full truth to Kevin, who didn’t seem to have noticed what had happened at Evermore when he had _lived_ there. “Because Jean at least had cared about what had happened to me while I had suffered, unlike everyone else at Evermore.”

Kevin’s anger seemed to fade a little. “There’s nothing else between you?”

Neil was confused by that question, by the emotion behind it. “What else would be between us? He’s sworn to Evermore, I’m not, but he does what he can to spare me Riko’s ire, that’s all, because he’s the only decent person at the knowe.” What was Kevin going at here?

Still, some sort of tension inside of Andrew lessened while at the same time Kevin seemed to relax. “So you’re friends, nothing more?”

Were they speaking the same language? “How can we even be friends when he’s sworn to Evermore and I’m not? I trust him to the extent that I know he’s not willingly sworn to those bastards, that’s all,” Neil tried to explain, even though yet again he felt as if he was speaking a foreign language. While yet again he felt as if he was from another time, another world, and he was missing an important concept that Andrew and Kevin would understand.

But something must have reached the two, as they seemed to relax a little more, as relief flowed across the bond he shared with Andrew. “As long as that’s it,” Kevin said while Andrew nodded.

Neil stared at them as if they were insane. “What else would it be?” he asked as he dug his fingers into Ombré’s nape before he shook his head. “I’ve had enough,” he declared before he turned away. “You can deal with… whatever.” He waved his left hand in the air as the wolves and pixies gathered around him as he headed to the nearest exit, which he’d made note of as soon as he’d stepped into the banquet hall.

Tomorrow the High Court would announce its decision for his future, and he didn’t care at the moment; he’d either find his way back to the Dark Road or he’d leave with Uncle Stuart. Right then and there he’d had enough with necromancers and Tuatha de Danann… he’d had _enough_.

His mother had been right, he’d decided. Dealing with people, with Fae, never ended well with him. Her renewed warnings echoing in his ears, Neil retreated to whatever bit of privacy as he could even as Andrew’s confusion echoed inside of his mind.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> I'm SO HOPING to get back to a normal schedule this week. SO HOPING.
> 
> Yeah, we see some more of Andrew's necromancer talents this chapter. FINALLY. Considering that's what started this whole thing.
> 
> And yes, more of Kevin's 'inner queen' coming through. He's getting there (OMFG you don't want to tick off the Brownies, more of that in the next chapter - for all of the 'impressive Fae', it's really the small ones who run things).
> 
> Hmm, who haven't we brought in yet?
> 
> Oh Neil, you really don't get things, do you???
> 
> I enjoyed the Neil and Allison moment there at the end.
> 
> Anything else???
> 
> OMFG!!! Fan art by the amazingly talented Godot! You gotta go look at this!  
> http://still-waiting-for-godot.tumblr.com/image/163072576964
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated.  
> *******


	11. We're in This Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sighs* We're almost at 200k now aren't we? WTF am I doing????
> 
> So, still think the first version of the one scene was better (it got taken into the great void, never to be seen again). This is what you get. Bah.
> 
> No new warnings as of now.  
> *******

*******

Andrew stood out on the patio smoking a cigarette while Kevin sat with Bee as he steadily drank himself into a stupor, Nicky was off with Erik and Aaron seemed to wander around the large banquet hall in an aimless manner. While Neil sat on the balcony in their rooms with the damn mutts and flying pests, his emotions wistful and sad as he cast more magic, something which made Andrew’s spirits uncomfortable and reluctant to approach the idiot.

An idiot who was a trouble-magnet, who couldn’t go more than five minutes unsupervised, apparently, not without attracting some Evermore bastard or worse. Andrew had thought to give Neil a bit of space, to allow him some breathing room since he could feel how unhappy the shadow walker was about having to attend the function that evening, figuring that the shadow wolves would keep everyone at bay, only to be proven wrong when he’d felt that mix of surprise, displeasure and anger. He’d immediately searched out Neil in the room and found the idiot on the dance floor of all places, along with a bunch of other disgruntled Fae.

Found Neil dancing with Jean Moreau from Evermore, his anger fading a little as Jean pulled him close and talked to him while spinning him around, even leaning in to give him a kiss. Funny, how Neil could barely tolerate anyone else being close to him, but he could tolerate _Jean_ despite his assurances to Kevin that there was nothing between the two of them.

Andrew hated the bitter curl of jealousy inside of him, hated that anyone could make him feel such a useless emotion. Hated how all too often, Neil made him feel things and do things he wouldn’t otherwise, all because the idiot was this improbable, impossible _thing_. Was something Andrew should know better than to dare put his faith in, to believe would be around for much longer despite any bonds or oaths or weird inheritance shit.

He’d finished the cigarette and just taken a swig of whiskey when Aaron joined him outside for some odd reason, a bottle of brandy held in his left hand. “So this is where you scuttled off to,” his twin remarked as he glanced around as if looking for something. “Where’s the walking disaster?”

Huh, that could only mean one person. “Neil’s doing everyone a favor and keeping to the suite for the rest of the night.”

“Well, as much as I was looking forward to seeing what insane crap the Moriyamas would pull next, can’t say I’m unhappy to hear that.” Aaron gave Andrew a searching look as he drank from the bottle, then wiped at his mouth with the back of his left hand. “So why are you out here?” When all Andrew did was give him a flat look in return, Aaron huffed. “No, don’t _even_ try it, not when I saw what you did.” His expression turned angry as he motioned behind him, toward the banquet room. “You always said that you don’t give a damn about your fuck-buddy back at the club, and yet here you are letting all of Fae know how serious you are about a freak just as messed up as you if not more so.”

As always, Aaron was so _wrong_ about everything, had no clue what was going on with Andrew. “All I did earlier was keep the idiot from killing a bunch of bastards out on the dance floor, nothing more. There’s nothing going on between me and Neil.”

“Bullshit.” Aaron sneered at him as he made a jabbing motion at Andrew’s chest with his right hand. “You don’t do anything without a reason, even when you’re beating the shit out of someone. So don’t stand there and tell me that ‘there wasn’t any other way’ or ‘I did what I had to do’.”

Andrew regarded him with a bland expression while he had some more whiskey, unwilling to give anything away. “Why do you care?” he asked once he lowered the bottle. “You barely pay any attention to Neil and you don’t give a shit about me.”

Something akin to jealousy twisted Aaron’s features at the question, and once again Andrew was struck with how he and his brother were supposed to be so ‘alike’ yet couldn’t be farther apart. “I don’t, it’s just that I refuse to see you fall all over yourself after someone you considered a danger to us all just a short while ago when you fuck up something as simple as me taking a girl to the movies.”

/ _Not-truth… and truth_./

Andrew allowed a false grin to spread across his face as he had a couple of spirits both prevent anyone from walking in on the two of them and Aaron from leaving. “Oh no, it’s never as ‘simple’ as that, dear brother,” he drawled. “Not when it comes to you and your little sweethearts, your ignorant humans whom you can glamour and charm.” He cast a brief glamour himself for a moment, one to make him look dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, to take away the faint dark circles under his eyes and give a healthy glow to his skin. “You like to pretend so much with them, the human girls, don’t you? Do you imagine playing house with them, of marrying them and getting a job somewhere, living in the mortal world full-time and having a house and a pet and maybe even kids? What happens when she grows old, hmm? When those lovely Fae genetics come out to play with a changeling child? Or someone breaks out the iron?” Aaron never understood just how foolish and stupid his little make-believe world was, how much those fantasies would hurt him and how Andrew was just keeping him safe.

“You _bastard_ ,” Aaron spat, for a moment appearing ready to throw the bottle of brandy at Andrew as the fury and spite radiated from him.  “And what about _you_ , hmm? What about you and your _pureblood_ boyfriend? I notice how everyone’s looking at him, even with those freaky ears and eyes. You think they’re going to let someone like _you_ lay claim to him? Someone who doesn’t even know if he’s Seelie or Unseelie? No wonder Roland is fine with fucking with you in the back room, rather than letting people know a changeling-“ His eyes went wide when a spirit knocked the bottle from his hand.

“ _Stop_ ,” Andrew said, not so much to his brother but to the spirits, who had acted in defense of him, as always. “Leave him be.” Still, Aaron fell quiet as he held his right hand cradled to his heaving chest, as his eyes darted about as if searching for the spirits. “I’m not going to stand around and do nothing while you risk exposing us for the sake of some human,” Andrew warned, mindful of Aaron’s recent ‘preoccupation’.

That provoked a harsh laughter from his twin. “You don’t know _anything_.” He shook his head as he took a cautious step back. “And worry about your own fucked-up relationship, if you can even call it that. People are already talking about it, about a filthy changeling and Maeb’s grandson.”

/ _Truth_./

“You should know by now that Fae will talk about anything,” Andrew shot back, but he had the spirits allow his brother to leave before they tore into each other any further. Though really, they should be used to it by now, used to how Aaron tried to get his hits in whenever he could, tried to make Andrew pay for Tilda when Andrew had done it for the ungrateful bastard, tried to make Andrew _care_ about the abusive bitch.

No wonder Neil got under Andrew’s skin so easily, after so many years of him dealing with Aaron, of putting up with hopeless cases. Except Aaron was wrong in that Neil didn’t care about Andrew being a changeling.

But why, then, had he been upset and embarrassed when they had danced together? Because it had been Andrew who had taken him into the center ring instead of Jean?

Jean… wait, one of the spirits was talking about Jean. Jean and Neil.

What the _hell_ was the Leannan Sidhe doing in Andrew’s room with Neil?

Letting the whiskey bottle fall to the floor, Andrew went stalking back into the banquet hall on his way to the wing which housed the rooms, determined to kill a certain Evermore knight despite the fucking ‘no fighting’ rule. He barely got halfway across the large room when a drunk Kevin came stumbling over to him, probably to ask for help in finding some more alcohol.

“Andrew, something-“

“Not now.” He had a spirit push Kevin out of his way and kept on.

“But Wymack, he- oh, who’re you gonna kill?” Kevin asked as he put those damn long legs of his to use and more or less kept pace with Andrew. “You look pissed. I mean angry. You know, that type of pissed. Not one of the others.”

“Not. Now,” Andrew gritted out as he had the spirits shove a couple of Red Caps out of his way, which earned him some inventive curses shouted at his back, not that he cared. “Moreau’s with Neil.”

“Oh.” For a moment Kevin stumbled again and almost went down, and then he was right next to Andrew with an intent expression on his face, suddenly a lot more sober than he’d been a couple of seconds ago. “You’re not killing him - Jean that is.”

Wait, so _Neil_ was an option? “Fine, I’ll maim him a little.”

“No, you leave him to me.” Kevin’s eyes flashed bright for a moment in the green fairy lights of the banquet hall and his firm jaw tightened. “You have Neil, you leave Jean to me.”

Andrew didn’t have Neil, not like Kevin had just implied, but whatever – first they had to get to the room and find out what the hell those two were doing, all alone except for some shadow wolves and pixies. He tried to get the spirits to give him more information on what was going on, but whatever magic the idiot had been casting earlier had left them cautious about getting too close again and they would only report back that Jean was still there.

They also picked up on people mentioning Andrew’s name through the banquet hall, Andrew’s name and the word ‘changeling’, not all of it in a good manner. Not that he gave a shit just then, but it was yet another complication when Andrew had enough of them.

He’d just wanted to put Neil out of Riko’s reach, to stave off whatever messed-up plan that sick bastard was plotting and make sure that no one bothered the idiot. He’d noticed how people were looking at Neil, and if they thought the shadow-walker was unavailable on at least one front, perhaps they’d leave him alone.

/ _Not-truth_./

A certain annoying piece of metal was going to find itself melted down _real_ soon.

They finally reached their suite and Andrew wasted no time to fling open the door, which provoked some furious screeching from the pixies in the common room and a cloud of glittering dust as they fluttered about in the air. Both he and Kevin coughed a little as they charged forward, right into the bedroom, only to find Jean standing near one of the beds with a knife in his hand and Neil sitting on the balcony railing with the wolves stretched out in front of him and more pixies around him.

“What is it?” Neil asked as he glanced around them as if looking for more people. “Something going on?” He’d undone the braids in his hair and removed most of the flowers, that and taken off his boots, but other than that he was still dressed as he’d been earlier in the night save for having rolled up his sleeves.

Meanwhile Jean gave Andrew and Kevin a disparaging look as he sank back down onto the bed; like Neil he’d removed his boots but he was still dressed in Evermore colors with a black shirt edged in red and black pants, everything so neat that Andrew felt the urge to muss him up in the worst way. “No manners at all,” the Leannan Sidhe sniffed as he put away the knife. “You should know better, Kevin, though I don’t expect much from _him_.” He flicked his left hand in Andrew’s direction, then shrugged when Neil said something brief and quiet in French.

“What are you doing here?” Andrew glanced around the rooms and didn’t see anything out of place, didn’t notice that the beds had been disturbed from how he’d left them earlier in the evening, didn’t find anything different with Neil’s nest of blankets and pillows in the corner. There was a lingering scent of herbs out on the patio, some scattered leaves and bits of stems and flowers, but Neil had been crafting hexes for most of the day.

“None of your business,” Jean said as he reached for his boots to pull them on, his face devoid of emotion. “It’s time I leave, Nathaniel.”

“Yes.” Neil nodded as he hopped off of the balcony and reached for something in the pouch hanging from the belt around his waist. “Here, take this before you-“ He blinked when the shadow wolves stood as one and blocked him from moving forward, spoke to them in old Fae as he gave Pilier then Nuit a gentle push before sighing in exasperation and holding what looked to be some sort of small charm up and continuing in Pixish.

Arrant swooped over to grab it then carried it over to Jean, who eyed the pixie with evident distrust before holding out his right hand so Arrant could drop it into his palm. He asked a question in French as he looked over at Neil.

“Something my mother taught me, a protection spell of sorts.” Neil shrugged as he wrapped his arms around his chest, the gauntlet back to being a bracelet around his right wrist. “Use it as you will.”

Jean regarded him for a couple of seconds before giving him a slight nod then turned to leave without saying anything else. For a moment it looked as if Kevin wanted to say something, to reach out to him, but Jean looked straight forward and walked out too fast before the coward could work up the nerve to do either.

As soon as the Leannan Sidhe was gone, Neil let out a slow breath and the shadow wolves moved away from in front of him, which earned them a displeased look before he shook his head. “So, big day tomorrow,” Neil said as he ran the fingers of his right hand through his hair. “I should… uhm, I’m tired. Lot of magic and everything else today.” He motioned with his left hand toward his pallet in the corner. “Just gonna go to sleep if you-“

“Why was he here?” Kevin’s voice was low and serious as he stepped closer to Neil, all signs of inebriation gone. “Why was Jean here?”

Neil frowned and shook his head. “None of your business,” he said, just like Jean had and attempted to avoid Kevin as he stepped to the side – only to come to a halt as Andrew got in his face.

“Nope, wrong answer,” Andrew replied as he waved his right forefinger about in the air. “This is our room, too, and you let an Evermore bastard in here. Time to confess.”

“Confess what?” Neil’s frown deepened as Jorea bared her teeth at Andrew from her spot on the idiot’s shoulder. “You’re acting as if I did something wrong.”

Someone was being even more of an oblivious idiot than usual – that or trying too hard at playing the innocent babe, which only made Andrew more annoyed. “How long ago was it when he helped play his part in trapping you on the dance floor for his master Riko to fuck with you, hmm?” Kevin didn’t look happy about that description, but it was the truth. “He’s not your friend, Neil. You supposedly admitted that not so long ago, too.”

“I know that,” Neil snapped as Ombré took to leaning against his side, as his fingers dug into her thick fur as they always did when he was anxious or upset – did he realize what a tell that was? “He came by to convey to me that it would be so much better for me to give up, to willingly go back to Evermore tonight. That Tetsuji offered to keep me from Riko if I swore to him tonight.”

/ _Truth… and not-truth_ ,/ the torc whispered in Andrew’s mind, which he took to mean that Jean had come bearing some sort of offer for Neil, but that the idiot was holding something back.

“What aren’t you telling us, hmm?” Andrew gave Neil a narrow look before he searched the room again, searched for something he might have missed, for some sort of clue what was going on between the two men. “What are you hiding from us?”

“What makes you think-“ Andrew turned back when Neil let loose a torrent of old Fae and stood still until if finished. “Dammit, you told me you wouldn’t use the torc on me!” Neil’s face was flushed and his eyes almost all black from his pupils being blown wide open.

“I’m not, or else you’d be telling me what I want to know.”

Neil made a low growling sound which had all the pixies but Jorea flit about in the air and the shadow wolves shift about while Andrew continued to gaze at him. “You and that stupid necklace can-“

“What are you doing with Jean?” Kevin asked as he stepped closer to Neil with his hands clenched into fists and a furious expression on his face. When Neil merely blinked and didn’t say anything, Kevin’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a parody of a smile. “If you truly weren’t doing anything, then you’d answer Andrew.”

“He told me about Tetsuji-“ Neil started, his expression guarded and emotions a mix of anger and wariness – like that wasn’t suspicious.

“Stop doing your evasive shit,” Kevin shouted, which made Neil flinch and the mutts to bare their teeth at Kevin. “I’m sick of it, do you think I don’t know about it after watching you do it so much? Now tell me about Jean!”

“There’s nothing to tell.” Neil’s body tensed as if he expected a blow from Kevin, but he didn’t back away.

/ _Truth… and not-truth_./

What the hell was going on here? Why wouldn’t Neil just tell them what they wanted? Why was Kevin acting so aggressive? Why didn’t Andrew break it up?

“Yes there is,” Kevin gritted as his fists rose up to his chest. “You gave him a charm, you gave him some of your _magic_. You shouldn’t do that, not when you already have Andrew. You have _everything_.” An unpleasant laugh escaped him as he unfurled the fingers of his left hand then clenched them tight. “You have that face which Jean adores, you have Andrew following you around everywhere, you have the shadow wolves and the pixies, you have Wymack facing the High Court for you and you’re still whole.” His voice grew louder and louder the longer he spoke. “You have Andrew but you won’t take Jean, dammit, do you hear me!”

/ _Untruth_. _Truth_. _Truth. Truth. Truth_ -/

The voice in his head finally shook Andrew from his paralysis, made him realize that Kevin was screaming at Neil, that the scents of sweet broom and cherries, of aromatic roses and fallen leaves were overwhelming in the room, that the pixies were shrieking and the shadow wolves were snarling, that Neil was pulling on the bond with all his might so he could slip onto the Dark Road and Andrew could barely keep him in the Fae realm. That one wrong move would have the wolves tearing Kevin apart and Neil running away never to return.

/ _Truth_./

“ _Stop it_!” Andrew shouted as rare emotion shaded his voice, as his magic poured forth, rich earth and ivy to overlay the other two’s, and Kevin shuddered and blinked as if coming out of a daze while Neil sank down to the floor to curl up into a small ball surrounded by shadow wolves. “Just… just stop,” he finished as he ran both hands through his hair then cupped them on the nape of his neck, the torc around his neck hot to the touch.

“Oh… oh Oberon’s blood,” Kevin whispered as he pressed his trembling fingers to his chest. “What… what just happened?”

A very good question, one Andrew had no idea how to answer; he went near Neil, only to be chased away by over-protective pixies and a stronger wave of panic from the idiot, who was almost completely engulfed by the shadow wolves tucked against him. “Alcohol,” Andrew said as he spun around.

“Hell yes,” Kevin agreed.

There were still plenty of bottles left from when the Brownies had brought stuff earlier in the day, so Kevin grabbed some vodka for himself and didn’t bother with a glass; Andrew paused for a moment and poured some brandy into one since he’d seen Neil drink a little then picked up a bottle of whiskey for himself before he went over to the huddle of shadow wolves. “Here, you should drink this,” he called out as he glared at the pixies to let him approach.

He was hissed at for his efforts, but they let him get near enough to set the glass down by Danseur, who gazed at him steadily while showing a hint of fang. Behind his wall of mutts, Neil remained curled up and radiated panic, confusion and disbelief, was tucked into himself so tight that all Andrew caught sight of was the tip of a pointed ear. “Look… that wasn’t supposed to happen,” Andrew tried to explain. Whatever the hell ‘that’ had been. There wasn’t supposed to have been screaming and Kevin losing control and magic and… Andrew gave up and had some whiskey.

“No, it wasn’t,” Kevin agreed after having a good bit of vodka, his voice hoarse and expression strained. “I don’t… I don’t know what happened to me there. It’s just Jean, you know.” His expression turned bitter and confused in turn. “He never… all those years and he never… I thought… I don’t know what to think anymore.”

Jorea landed in the middle of the wolves and took to murmuring in Pixish while several of the flying pests went out into the garden, but Neil didn’t move and didn’t say anything, not even to Kevin’s fumbled sort of confession. Andrew had a feeling that it was going to be a long night, that he might be back to square one with Neil, and was debating if going to track down and beat up a certain Leannan Sidhe might make him feel better when there was a knock on the door.

If it was anyone from Neil’s family coming to pay a visit, Andrew was breaking out the knives. If it was anyone from Andrew’s family, then they were going to get punched as he was in no mood to either deal with Aaron’s refusal to face reality nor Nicky’s perverted stupidity.

It was Dan and Matt, which wasn’t much better, really. “Go away,” Andrew said as he prepared to slam the door shut in their faces, but Matt was a strong son of a bitch and forced it to remain open long enough for first Dan to slide into the room and then him.

“As always, so nice to deal with you,” Dan said as she stood with her hands on her hips and glanced around while Andrew debated having a spirit shove the two pain in the asses into the wall. “Something’s come up so we’re meeting in Wymack’s rooms again, now where are the others?”

“Not a good time, so leave,” Andrew told them as he summoned a spirit to back up the command. “Goodbye.”

“Dammit, Andrew, it’s an order! All three of you, now,” Dan called out as she fought against the spirit. “Wymack said to come!”

Gritting his teeth together as he had the spirit leave them alone, Andrew shook his head before he sipped more whiskey. “Fine, give us a few minutes.”

Dan and Matt shared a look for a moment, and then Andrew spat out a curse as fire flared around him just long enough to distract him as the two assholes moved quickly into the bedroom. He heard Dan yell Kevin’s name and then an angry shout from Matt right before Dan bellowed out Andrew’s name.

“What in Maeb’s name is going on here?” the dryad demanded to know as she pointed at the bundle of mutts and idiot which Matt was circling while calling out Neil’s name. “What did you do to him?”

As always, it was _his_ fault, wasn’t it? Before he could tell Dan to fuck off, Kevin spoke up.

“Uhm, I did it. I think. Sorta. It’s a mess,” the coward mostly explained in a not-so helpful manner. Apparently Dan thought the same because she appeared ready to strangle Kevin while Matt hovered around the pile of shadow wolves as close as he dared and asked Neil if he should go get Abby.

That finally got a response out of the idiot (a quiet ‘no’), which made Dan give up on murdering Kevin and whip around to go stand by her boyfriend. “Neil? Are you okay? What did these two do to you?”

“You act like we took turns torturing him,” Andrew muttered, right before the damn pixies swooped back into the room to dump a bunch of glittering lavender blooms on Neil’s head.

_That_ finally got a real reaction out of the idiot, which was to complain in old Fae and unfurl enough to sit up and brush the shit out of his tousled hair. Ombré was quick to whine and lick his face, which made him sigh and give her a hug while Matt smiled. “You okay, buddy?”

Neil shrugged, the motion slight, and seemed to be deliberately avoiding looking at Andrew and Kevin. “I’m fine.”

/ _Not-truth_./

Yeah, so helpful.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here but Wymack wants to tell everyone something important,” Dan announced. “So come with us and Abby can make you some tea, okay?” She shot Andrew a significant look. “You can crash with me and Matt tonight, if you like.”

Neil didn’t say anything as he slowly stood up with Jorea on his shoulder and the mutts pressed against his legs, he just gave a slight shake of his head. Dan didn’t appear pleased with that but headed for the door, while Matt lingered a moment near Neil before joining her.

Andrew waited for Neil to take a step forward before approaching the idiot, and was surprised when Jorea launched herself off of Neil’s shoulder toward him with the other pixies quick to follow their leader. “Stay away,” she called out in English for once, the fury evident in her high-pitched voice and on her sharp features.

“Fuck off,” Andrew told her as he once more held up his hand to flick her away, and Dan and Matt paused to see what was happening.

“No, you _fuck off_.” He arched an eyebrow at the pixie swearing. “Think Unseelie not good enough, huh?” She bared her sharp teeth at him as she hovered in the air, her silver wings flapping as quick as a hummingbird’s. “Think Seelie is better? Not good enough for Unseelie you are! Stay away.” Then she unleashed a spat of Pixish before she whirled around to return to Neil’s shoulder.

All Andrew could pick up from Neil was confusion, weariness, doubt and unhappiness, which didn’t explain _anything_. When he attempted to step near him again, he was blasted with so much pixie dust that he became dizzy enough that Kevin had to yank him back and slap a charm on him to counter-act the damn stuff before he ended up drooling on the floor.

“What did you do them?” the coward asked as he was pulled toward the door leading to the hallway.

Andrew gave Kevin a quelling look for that question even as an uneasiness grew inside of him over the pixies' reaction, over the hurt and confusion which he could feel from Neil.

For a short while everything had seemed okay, had seemed to be going all right... he should have known he'd just fuck it all up somehow.

Everyone was quiet as they went to Wymack's rooms, Kevin still clutching a bottle of vodka in his hand and Neil was quick to settle in a far corner with the wolves lying in front of him as if a furry, fanged wall of sorts to keep the rest of the Foxes at bay once they got into the large common room. Abby and Renee picked up on that at once, with the healer rushing over to Neil (as close as the mutts would allow) and Renee giving Andrew a questioning look.

Andrew noticed that Seth still wasn't anywhere to be found, and for once that Erik wasn't glued to Nicky's side. Also, Wymack wasn't in the room. Andrew glanced around a couple of seconds then turned toward the door, only to be blocked by Dan.

"Ah, ah, he said to give him a minute or two, he's busy talking to someone."

"I don't care." The last thing Andrew felt like at the moment was sitting around with these imbeciles while waiting for Wymack to grace them with his presence. "I've better things to do."

"Like what? Drink and cause havoc, you twisted dwarf?" Wymack asked as the door to the bedroom opened up to reveal the Daoine Sidhe and someone rather unexpected, someone whose smiling face always made Andrew want to punch it and for once didn't have Kevin jumping to his feet and smiling back - Jeremy Knox of the Ocean’s End knowe.

"Hey, nice to see everyone," he said as he waved, his gaze lingering on Kevin for a moment before it continued to sweep across the room, and then his blue eyes widened as he caught sight of Neil. "Oh wow, _wow_. For once the stories didn't exaggerate things, did they?" His grin widened as he rushed over to the corner where Neil was curled up - or at least tried to, because Andrew was quick to get in his path even before the shadow wolves stood up and growled. "Hi," Jeremy told him with a slight wave. "Long time no see, Andrew."

"Not long enough. Fuck off," he told the annoying Tuatha de Danann as he fingered his armbands.

Jeremy blinked at that, but before he could respond, Wymack pulled him away. "Play nice, dammit. Jeremy came here on James Rheman's behalf to tell us something important."

"Yes." Jeremy seemed to recover himself and folded his arms over his chest. "There's a lot of stuff going on, word's spread about the case and drawn a lot of attention here." He gave a pointed look toward Neil's corner.

"Such as?" Kevin asked as he finally set the mostly empty bottle aside and stood to his feet, wavering only a little bit. "Most of the major players are already here."

"Not really." Jeremy shook his head as he gave Kevin a worried look. "Most of the big _North American_ players are here. Rheman sent me here to warn you that Ichirou Moriyama will arrive by morning."

/ _Truth_./

Andrew glanced back and forth between the two young men as Kevin paled and several of the Foxes took to reacting as well - Dan and Allison swearing, Matt wincing, Renee closing her eyes as if to pray. Nicky and Aaron appeared just as clueless as him, while Neil... oh, Neil wasn't surprised at all, wasn't that interesting?

/ _Truth_./

"Okay, I'll just ask it, who the hell is Ichirou Moriyama? Is he like some hot cousin we never heard about? Please say he's hot and not another psychotic asshole." Nicky asked as he gave everyone a nervous smile.

"Well, he is hot, the last time I saw him, but yeah, he's another psychotic asshole," Allison said as she tapped her long nails against her hips. "It's a family trait - the psychoticness."

"Wonderful," Nicky mumbled as his shoulders slumped forward.

"That doesn't answer who he is," Aaron pointed out as he turned his back toward their cousin as if disgusted to look at him. "Just what."

"He's Riko's older brother," Kevin explained. "There's two branches of the family, one here in the US and another in Japan - the main branch. The oldest son remains in Japan to head the family and the youngest son is sent away, that's how Tetsuji ended up here. When Kengo, Tetsuji's brother, had two sons, he handed over Riko, the younger, to Tetsuji to raise. For all of his power and prestige, Tetsuji is nothing in Kengo's eyes."

"Especially now since Kengo is gone and Ichirou has taken over," Wymack said. "I don't know what's going on, but the general consensus is that Ichirou is coming here to lay down the law, and that's not good when Tetsuji's flexing his muscles."

Again, none of this seemed to surprise Neil.

"In other words, tomorrow is going to be another fun-filled day. We get it." Andrew waved aside Wymack's retort as he went over to where a certain idiot was sulking. "Come with me," he said when several pixies rushed to block him from getting close. "We need to talk."

"Andrew," Wymack called out, his deep voice loaded with warning, which Andrew waved away as well.

Neil finally raised his head to look at Andrew, his expression blank and emotions a tangled mess, but the wariness was strong enough to be felt. "I didn't appreciate our last 'talk'."

/ _Truth_./

Fair enough. "There won't be any yelling this time, I swear to you." Then he considered things for a moment. "On my part, at least."

Neil continued to regard him for a couple of seconds before sighing and slowly standing up. "If there is, I really will have Ombré bite you." The she-wolf huffed at that and wagged her tail.

"I'm sure I taste terrible," Andrew warned as he stepped aside so Neil could head toward the door, and arched an eyebrow when Jorea hissed at him; he left a couple of spirits behind to watch over his family and Kevin.

They were quiet until they reached their suite, where Neil picked up the neglected glass of brandy and Andrew the bottle of whiskey which he'd left behind. He had a few swallows of the warm liquor while Neil did his best to choke down a couple of sips, then watched as the idiot once more took his spot out on the balcony railing.

Seeing no reason to pull his punches, Andrew spoke up after he wiped at his lips with the back of his left hand. "Jean told you about Ichirou. He wasn't here to talk you into going back to Evermore." Then he thought about that statement. "He wasn't _just_ here to talk to you about going back to Evermore."

Neil sighed as he stared into the half-empty tumbler, the starlight reflecting on the remaining pixie dust clinging to his face and hair. "I can't...." He shook his head and gave a slight shrug.

Ah, an oath, most likely. "He asked you not to say anything."

That earned him a cautious look through thick lashes. "Jean...." When Andrew didn't grow angry at the sound of the other Fae's name, Neil sighed. "Jean's in a precarious position, caught between an oath he was forced to swear and being unwilling to see the same happen to me. He was told to come here tonight and try to get me to swear to Tetsuji before the verdict tomorrow." Neil shrugged again. "There's a reason for it, which I'm sure you can guess now."

“Tetsuji wants everything settled before his nephew arrives.” Andrew thought about that for a moment, thought about the little Kevin had said back in the other room, about there being a main family, about Kengo and now Ichirou being the real power. “Wait, don’t tell me that Ichirou believes that he owns you.”

“I don’t know,” Neil admitted, and it seemed that he was telling the truth - at least as far as he knew it. “But I didn’t know about my father giving me over to Tetsuji until I ended up in his hands so…” He once again shrugged, which earned him a displeased rant from Jorea. “My father’s sworn to Tetsuji, but Tetsuji probably owes something to this main branch. Jea- ah, more than likely, Ichirou heard about the trial and found out that there’s an outstanding debt with me.”

A debt he wanted to renegotiate, except that Neil wasn’t a thing, wasn’t something to be bartered in the first place, let alone passed along like cheap goods.

Except Neil wasn’t cheap goods, he was one of only two Folús Sidhe, could kill another Fae with barely more than a touch. He was also the only Fae who could shadow walk into any knowe, could breach wards with ease.

He was the only Fae who was Maeb’s heir.

He was the only one who somehow wormed his way deep inside of Andrew like a fucking parasite.

Neil flinched and resumed staring into the glass of brandy. “You… you feel like you’re about to start yelling.”

“I’m not,” Andrew said as he raised the bottle of whiskey to his lips.

“You look it, too.”

“I’m not,” Andrew gritted out before he took a long swallow of the surprisingly fine alcohol; the Brownies had brought Kevin the good stuff.

“Uhm, you sound it, too.”

“You’re _not_ helping,” Andrew pointed out as he did his best not to throttle a certain idiot.

“Right.” Neil sighed before he had some more brandy, which made him grimace again. “I don’t… I don’t think I like drinking.”

“Neil.” Andrew waited a moment and repeated the name until Neil looked at him. “Have the wolves and the pixies leave.”

Neil instantly became wary again, his body tense and emotions defensive. “Why?” With the dim light in the room, his pupils were blown and reflective, giving him an even more eerie air.

“Because we need to talk.” Andrew motioned to the air around him, to the ever-present spirits. “I’ll send them away, too, so it’s just us. Just this room, they won’t be far.”

It was quiet as Neil seemed to consider the offer, to consider Andrew’s emotions, and after a few seconds he gave a slight nod. Ombré whined and Jorea hissed when he spoke in quiet old Fae, but the mutts melted into the shadows and the pixies went flying out into the gardens after a few more seconds. “Your turn.”

Andrew nodded as he motioned again, that time for the spirits to retreat to the common room; one or two of them hesitated, but they soon did as he’d told them and it was only him and Neil in the bedroom. “Now, can we have a talk about you and Jean without someone screaming?”

“Why?” Neil both appeared and felt puzzled as he jumped from the balcony railing so he could set the glass aside on one of the small tables.

“Because you said no screaming,” Andrew pointed out with some annoyance.

Neil looked at him as if he was stupid. “No, why Jean? Why are you and Kevin so obsessed with him?”

All right, Andrew wasn’t drunk enough for this shit, he decided as he had a good bit more whiskey. When the bottle was almost empty and he had control of his temper once more, he tried again. “Why is he kissing you and risking getting into trouble with the Moriyamas for you, while you give him charms and keep the mutts from killing him?” And Riko.

“What?” Neil seemed to reconsider his decision about alcohol since he drained the rest of the brandy. “Oh… _fuck_ ,” he sputtered for a moment. “When did Jean kiss me?”

His utter confusion and disbelief made Andrew frown and shake his head. “On the- is there anything going on between the two of you?”

“No,” Neil said as he scrubbed at his mouth with the back of his left hand as if to get rid of a bad taste. “We’re friends, sort of. Why are you and Kevin so concerned about us?”

/ _Truth_./

The idiot didn’t get it, didn’t understand what it had looked like, him and Jean out on the dance floor or…. Neil was an _idiot_. “What was with that charm?”

There was a bit of muttered French while Neil ran his fingers through his hair. “Something my mom taught me, something to buy you time when-“ Neil sighed and shook his head, his hair falling down to hide most of his face as his emotions turned turbulent. “It’s dark and not nice, all right? I thought Jean could use it if he got into trouble.” He rubbed at his left shoulder and shrugged. “I made a few of them. Thought… thought I’d hand them out,” he said as he looked away from Andrew, the motion deliberate.

/ _Truth_./

Neil had sat in their room casting magic when Jean had shown up to warn him about Ichirou, magic he’d intended to give away, and then Andrew and Kevin had stormed in like a bunch of jealous assholes to be caught up in… well, Andrew still wasn’t sure what had all happened, to be honest. He knew he still felt something twist inside of him at the thought of Neil _and_ Jean, which was ridiculous because Neil wasn’t a possession. He certainly didn’t understand what had turned Kevin into a raving maniac.

But Neil was talking to him now. Not that talking was ever Andrew’s strong suit.

/ _Truth_./

Fucking piece of metal….

“All right, so that settles the Jean thing,” Andrew said as he eyed the remaining bit of whiskey in the bottle rather than look at Neil just then. “At least for us, Kevin’s on his own.”

Mentioning the coward made Neil become apprehensive as he turned to better face Andrew. “Yes, Kevin.” He chewed on his full bottom lip as he held the empty tumbler glass cradled against his chest. “Kevin said… uhm….”

Dammit, Andrew had hoped that Neil hadn’t picked up on everything that Kevin had said during his ranting, but the fates weren’t that kind to him, were they? “He said a lot of bullshit, such as there being something between you and Jean.”

“Yeah, but you seemed to think that, too.” There was pain and confusion and reluctance as Neil set the glass aside and wrapped his arms around his chest. “But it’s not true, right? Because there’s you and Renee.”

For a moment Andrew almost went with it, almost said ‘yes’. Except he wouldn’t lie even if everything would blow up in his face, even if he heard that faint bit of hope in Neil’s voice. “I already told you that there’s nothing between me and Renee.”

Neil flinched a little at the words. “You said you didn’t want to dance with Renee,” Neil argued. “That-“

“I don’t like Renee,” Andrew gritted out. “I don’t like women at all that way, and Renee doesn’t like men. You’ve got it all wrong.”

“Oh.” Neil’s eyes grew unfocused as his hands clutched at his forearms, as a faint thread of panic crept into his emotions. “But that’s… Kevin said… you felt… and then you did that… the dance floor….”

“I don’t follow you around,” Andrew snapped. “We’ve got this fucking bond between us, there’s no choice but to be around you or else I feel like shit. And yes, you’re attractive, I’ve noticed that.” Neil flinched again, which made Andrew angry, made him feel like he was in the wrong which only made the anger and frustration worse. “What, is it wrong to notice something like that? Just because you can sense my emotions doesn’t mean I can’t feel something like that, dammit! It’s not like I’m going to _do_ anything, going to blow you or anything. Just because I see someone I’d like to mess around with doesn’t mean I’m ever going to touch them. Ever touch _you_. ”

 It spilled out, all of his frustration over the bond and Neil being just out of reach, being so fucking oblivious, until Neil was hunched over and no longer looking at him. It was quiet for a couple of seconds before Neil spoke. “You said no yelling.”

After all of that, and Neil just had to be a smart-ass, didn’t he? Andrew gave him a flat look as he threw the whiskey bottle out the open doors leading to the balcony then shoved his right hand into the front pockets of his pants to fetch his cigarettes. “Oops.”

“Yeah.” Neil looked around until he found another bottle of brandy and poured some more into his glass, his hands trembling slightly the entire time. Then he gulped that down as well, his cheeks flushed as he struggled to not throw up, judging from the rush of nausea along with the confusion and uncertainty.

Andrew watched him as he puffed on the cigarette. “So what now? Off to your mother’s knowe after all? Sic the mutts on me?” Run as far as he could for however long the damn bond allowed?

There was some faint mumbling in old Fae as Neil seemed to debate on more brandy or not before he set the empty glass aside. “I’m tempted,” Neil said as he turned around, his voice hoarse and expression haunted. “It would make things so much easier.”

Again, the story of Andrew’s life, of him always being an inconvenience to others. “Too bad for you,” he drawled as he blew out a plume of smoke in the idiot’s direction.

That earned him a now familiar spate of old Fae as Neil spun around and stalked over to the balcony – only to stop after a few feet and spin back around toward Andrew, his eyes flashing in the dim light and jaw set at a stubborn angle as he came to a halt within reach. “No, we do this _now_ ,” he insisted as he stood there close enough for Andrew to pick up the scent of his magic despite the burn of tobacco, for him to catch the faint hint of freckles beneath the pixie dust on Neil’s nose and cheekbones.

Andrew’s fingers itched to brush that damn dust aside, to pick at the stray flower or two which remained in Neil’s tousled mess of curls. Instead he narrowed his eyes as he flicked ash onto the floor. “Do what? Talk about how much of an idiot you are? We’ll be up all night.”

“Damn you,” Neil ground out. “You… why do you like me?” The anger gave way to the confusion he felt.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Andrew scoffed. “You’re nothing to me, you’re an irritant forced upon me because of Renee’s stupidity who’s pretty to look at, that’s all.”

/ _Not-truth_./

 Something was going to get melted down at the first opportunity, weren’t they? Still, Andrew couldn’t spare much attention for the annoying voice when Neil was back to chewing on that full bottom lip of his and held his right hand up near Andrew’s chest. “You… you frustrate me and make me mad and say all these confusing things, but I like being near you,” Neil admitted in that quiet voice of his which always made Andrew go still so he didn’t miss hearing anything. “It’s nice, being with you. Only you.”

/ _Truth_./

Hearing that one word decided Andrew, made him do something he had barely admitted to himself that he’d wanted ever since a certain idiot had stumbled into his life. Moving slowly so he didn’t ruin anything (for once), Andrew grasped Neil’s hand in his; the idiot started at the touch but didn’t pull away, merely looked at him as he tugged Neil’s hand toward his face. “Just here,” he said. “No lower.”

Neil drew in a sharp breath as his fingers brushed gently against Andrew’s left cheek, soft as a phantom caress at first and then with a little more pressure with the next stroke. When Andrew held out his own right hand near Neil’s cheek, he nodded with a smile. “It’s all right.”

Andrew’s fingers slid into Neil’s tousled hair and chased after one of the stray flowers when Neil’s smile grew stronger and his fingers stroked the faint stubble growing along Andrew’s chin; Andrew rolled his eyes at the fascination and delight washing into him. “It’s _hair_.”

“But it’s so different,” Neil exclaimed as he rubbed the ball of his thumb along Andrew’s jaw, then shivered with pleasure when Andrew’s knuckles skimmed along his left ear. “Ahh.”

“Different,” Andrew echoed as he repeated the gentle touch and drank in the sounds Neil made, the sight of Neil’s flushed face and feel of Neil’s fingers carefully cupping his own cheek. More than anything he wanted to fist his fingers in the idiot’s hair and pull him in for a kiss, but something told him that was too much too soon.

He’d noticed how Neil liked to touch things, though, how he was always touching the shadow wolves for reassurance, how he let the pixies cling to him. Considering how long Neil had spent by himself on the Dark Road, how he must have grown up with relatively little affection considering his parents, it made sense that urge to touch and pet and hug those few things he knew were safe for him (the mutts, basically). So if this was real, if this wasn’t life jerking Andrew around yet again, then no rushing things.

Not after what had happened to Neil in Evermore. Not after Andrew’s past.

Not when they were fumbling along like a couple of blind fools as it was.

So they shifted a little closer to each other a small step at a time, Andrew’s face held between Neil’s palms as his fingers stroked and rubbed and seemed to map out every inch of it, as Andrew’s fingers sparkled with pixie dust from him skimming them along those sharp cheekbones and elongated ears and combing them through auburn strands. Neil shivered and softly gasped while Andrew fought not to show any emotion, but there were spikes of pleasure and wonder and contentment and a low thrum of want across the damn bond. Andrew had just pulled gently so Neil’s forehead rested against his own, Neil’s eyes heavy-lidded and his lips parted in a half-smile as Andrew thumbed his way up to the tip of the idiot’s left ear when there was the sound of the front door opening.

“Andrew? Are you- ack! Stop, I’m not doin- call them- _AH_!!”

Andrew hadn’t known that Kevin could scream like that, but then again, he supposed being beset upon by disgruntled spirits and shadow wolves would do that to a person.

Neil swore in old Fae as he turned his head just enough to glance in the direction of the screams as Andrew sighed a little before he called off the spirits.

“ _NEIL_!!”

Andrew gave a gentle flick to the idiot’s ear before Neil huffed and called out in old Fae, clearly unhappy with Kevin at the moment. The loud snarls died down and a moment later the mutts stepped out of the shadows into the bedroom, their ears perked up and tails wagging – while more voices could be heard out in the common room.

“Are we under attack? Is it the Moriyamas?” Matt wanted to know.

“Are you all right? Kevin?” That was Wymack, sounding worried for some reason.

Kevin babbled something as Andrew and Neil stepped away from each other, and Andrew noticed that the shadow wolves seemed to have gone back to at least tolerating him since they brushed past him without snarling or snapping on their way to Neil for some attention. In fact, Nuit was leaning against him a little while Ombré and Danseur had their ears rubbed when the Foxes inched their way into the bedroom.

“What the fuck is going on?” Wymack asked as he looked around the room as if expecting a bloodbath of some sort, a knife held in his right hand. Kevin was at his left side and appeared as if he _had_ seen a bloodbath of some kind, his face pale and covered with sweat, his eyes a little vacant.

Meanwhile, Renee took one glance at Andrew and Neil and smiled in a too bright manner. “Oh, did you have a nice talk?”

How the hell did she do shit like that? Andrew gave her a flat look. “We talked.” Beside him, Neil fidgeted a little and he could feel a strong sense of scrutiny as if Neil was searching for something.

“That’s good, you should do that more often. It helps build strong bonds.”

Wasn’t someone oh so amusing? Andrew really needed to put more thought in how to kill a naiad. “We’ve got that covered. Maybe you should try talking yourself.” He glanced at Allison just long enough to drive his point home.

Wymack grunted as he sheathed the knife. “Look, whatever the fuck you were doing or not doing, keep the mayhem and weird shit to a minimum, we’re trying to convince people we’re mostly sane, _remember_?” He glowered around the room before turning to leave. “Behave, you morons.”

“You doing better now?” Matt asked Neil with evident concern, and grinned when Neil nodded. “Okay. You can still crash in our room if you want, but it looks like you don’t need it.” He motioned at the wolves. “See you tomorrow.”

Allison and Renee lingered a couple of seconds, the Valkyrie to give Neil an assessing look as if to make sure he was all right and Renee to beam at Andrew before they finally left as well. Then it was just Kevin, Neil and Andrew, so he went to check that the door was locked and warded. When he came back, Neil was seated on the chaise lounge with Ombré and Danseur next to him, while Kevin had found another bottle of vodka.

Neil gave Andrew a slight smile and nod as he made his way to his bed so he could sit down, which Kevin seemed to catch. “So, Knox have anything else of importance to say after we left?” Andrew asked.

Kevin lowered the bottle and shook his head. “No, not really… well, yeah.” He blushed a little, probably because he’d always had a weird fanboy thing going on with Knox despite whatever with Jean. “He let us know that some knowes are already complaining about what’s happened here, about the whole goblin fruit thing.” His brow grew furrowed as he stared at the bottle. “There’s talk about how the High Court might be in collusion with the Moriyamas, which could hurt it down the line if people feel it’s not impartial enough.” He looked up from the bottle to glance back and forth between Andrew and Neil. “And there’s rumors about the Three returning, Jeremy said.”

Andrew wondered what had brought that on and scoffed. “Hope no one holds their breath waiting for that to happen.” Those ‘Three’ had well and truly fucked off, and if people thought that Andrew and Neil were going to step up just because some stupid jewelry had picked them? Hell no. Andrew wasn’t the slightest bit interested and Neil just wanted to be left alone.

“I’m just… well, people are talking,” Kevin said as he eyed the amount of vodka left in the bottle, and when neither Neil nor Andrew responded, had a few more swallows of the potent alcohol. Then he glanced back and forth between them a little more. “So, uhm, how about the two of you?” When Neil and Andrew remained quiet, he sighed. “You seem to be better now, so you’re good?” Andrew gave him a blank look while Neil rubbed Danseur’s ears enough to provoke a happy whine from her.

Kevin sighed at their lack of response and had some more vodka before he tried again. “I’ll go with ‘yes’.” He seemed to focus on Neil after that. “Now if things are fine with Andrew, then there’s no need to do anything with Jea-“

“No.” If it wasn’t for the fact that there was the bond between them and Andrew could sense when Neil used his shadow talent, he’d swear that Neil had used it to move off of the piece of furniture, he was up on his feet and in front of Kevin that fast, but it was just Neil’s natural speed. “ _Don’t_ ,” he told Kevin as his lean body tensed up in anger, as the wolves flowed around him as if his shadow had broken into four twisted, furious pieces and the pixies swept about in the air like demented hummingbirds. “Don’t you dare bring up Jean to me,” Neil warned with his jaw set in anger and hands balled into fists. “Not when you don’t know anything, not about what happened to me there, not about- you don’t know _anything_!”

Kevin flinched at that, green eyes wary as Neil spun around to stalk over to the corner which held his pallet so he could snatch up a small bag and then stomp off to the bathroom, muttering under his breath in old Fae and French the entire time, the shadow wolves close to him and the pixies darting above in the air as the whole circus went into the bathroom together. As soon as the door slammed shut, Kevin let out a slow breath and looked over at Andrew.

“I just wanted to know about-“

“Don’t,” Andrew said, and would have felt amused at the way the coward flinched again if he couldn’t feel Neil’s anger and upset just then. When Kevin finished off the last bit of vodka and went to grab another bottle, he repeated the word. “ _Don’t_.”

“But-“

“No.” He wasn’t in the mood to put up with a wasted coward that night. When Kevin sighed and set the empty bottle aside, he crossed his arms and gave a short nod. “Why are you so obsessed with Jean?” He figured he’d try to get an answer while Neil wasn’t around.

“I’m not obsessed,” Kevin muttered as he rubbed at his left eye then sat down on his own bed. “Not really. It’s just… him and Neil?” He gave Andrew a curious look as if waiting for a reaction and then sighed again. “You’ve seen him, seen how he is. All that time at Evermore, he was like that. Was quiet and smart and the closest thing to honorable there.” Kevin looked down at his scarred left hand and grimaced. “We were… well, we could have been better friends, if it wasn’t for Riko. If I hadn’t followed Riko around so much, and he was always so distant and proper. I guess I thought that he’d always be distant and proper, then he acted so concerned about Neil at the club.” He began to trace the thickest scar on the back of his left hand as his gaze grew distant. “Then I saw him on the dance floor with Neil, and all I could think of was Jean _and_ Neil.”

For a moment Andrew felt a spike of rage, felt like getting off of the bed and shaking Kevin for being such a blind, oblivious idiot for never realizing _why_ Jean was so ‘distant and proper’; Neil had insinuated that the Leannan Sidhe had suffered the same things at the hands of the Evermore knights that he had, that Riko seemed to have a special way to break in his ‘property’. Andrew knew that Kevin could be obsessed, that he had a laser focus that locked him in on what he believed was most important to him – studying and practicing – but to not see such abuse around him?

But then again, there had been those people who hadn’t seen the bruises on Andrew when he was young, who hadn’t noticed their- well, there were reasons for his spirits, weren’t there? Reasons why the shadow wolves had come for Neil. Reasons why Jean and Neil looked after each other, even if the thought of Neil _and_ Jean still made something twist inside of Andrew when he now realized that there was no reason for it.

“There’s nothing between them, other than they both know what it feels like to be Riko’s punching bag,” Andrew said. “Yell at him like that again and you’ll be missing a tongue.”

“What?” Kevin gave him a nervous laugh as if he thought that Andrew was joking, then blanched when he realized that Andrew was serious. “I didn’t mean to yell at him.” He left his hand alone to toy with one of the buckles on his tunic. “I don’t understand what happened earlier, honest. I just wanted an answer, just felt this thing inside of me push for the truth, to _push_ and then everything….” Kevin’s thick brows drew together as he seemed to grow confused. “Something didn’t like the idea that he had what I wanted.”

/ _Truth_./

“Well, it sounds like you want Jean,” good luck with that, nice to know someone was in for even more of a mess than Andrew, “and Neil doesn’t have or want him, so leave Neil the fuck alone.”

Kevin stared at him for a couple of seconds before giving him the finger and then fumbling to take off his boots. He’d just managed to kick off the second one when Neil came out of the bathroom, his face scrubbed clean of the pixie dust and hair combed somewhat into order, changed into a loose shirt and leggings to sleep in. He nodded to Andrew on his way to the corner, where he curled up with the wolves around him and the pixies settled on the blanket.

Andrew grabbed what he needed to get ready and took his turn in the bathroom next, and didn’t linger too long in there since he was tired and it would be another long day, tomorrow. However, he did spend a few seconds looking into the mirror before he brushed his teeth to take in the faint stubble on his chin, to think about Neil’s fingers stroking along it and the fascination which had flowed across their bond, about the pleasure and happiness he’d felt as he’d touched his idiot in return.

Kevin was reading a book when he left the bathroom, and it took a moment for Andrew to realize that there was something on his bed – on his pillow were two small malachite stones, were charms. He could pick up a faint whiff of Neil’s magic when he brought them close to his face, and they radiated a strong sense of malice – not aimed at him, but in general, which reminded him of Neil’s ‘not nice’ comment.

He glanced over at the corner, but Neil was already on the verge of sleep. Jorea, however, was still awake, stretched out along the long line of the idiot’s thigh, and gave Andrew an unimpressed look before closing her eyes. Not that it mattered to Andrew, not when Neil had given him two charms which he slipped beneath an armband each, not when he could still feel the faint tingle of mindful fingers along his jaw and cheeks, could hear the echo of ‘truth’ to Neil’s confession.

He slipped into the bed, determined to get as much rest as he could because if the past was any indication of things, tomorrow was going to be one fucked up day due to how the night had ended.

*******

Neil was drifting in and out of consciousness when the wolves jerked onto their feet and then vanished into the shadows at the sound of the front door opening, the same time that Andrew cursed and sat up on the bed. Grumbling a little about the Brownies letting themselves in again, Neil rubbed at his aching eyes and got up while Jorea badmouthed the other Fae. His stomach twisted a little at the aromas wafting in when Andrew opened the door between the two rooms, and Kevin yelped when the spirits shook his bed hard enough to wake up the Tuatha de Danann.

Flattening against the door to allow the Brownies to rush in to check on Kevin, Neil sighed and shook his head then went over to Andrew’s side, only to find the necromancer already munching on a croissant. “They’re spoiling him,” he complained, and tried not to feel guilty at the darker than usual smudges beneath Andrew’s hazel eyes, which he knew were there because of the restless night he’d had due to the anxiety over the verdict that day. Then he became distracted by the pale blond stubble along his friend’s jaw, by the way Andrew’s full lips quirked the tiniest bit.

“Seriously?” Disbelief and amusement and something warm flowed into Neil as Andrew ate the last bite of pastry and then fisted the front of Neil’s shirt – only for Jorea to fly into Andrew’s face.

“ _No_ ,” she spat in Pixish. “ _He’s too fickle, too untrustworthy. He doesn’t touch_ ,” she told Neil.

“The fuck?” Andrew asked in a mild tone, but Neil could feel his irritation.

Meanwhile, Neil shook his head and allowed some of his own anger to come through as he glared at the pixie. “ _No, not Andrew_ ,” he answered in the same language. Andrew could be confusing and harsh, but he wasn’t untrustworthy. “ _You’re wrong. I **know** this_.” He held Jorea’s gaze until she sputtered and tossed back her silver hair.

“ _Fine, but if he hurts you, I cast impotence curse on him **forever**_.”

Neil felt his face heat up at that even as he nodded in agreement; they hadn’t… but that… oh hell.

“Do I even want to know?” Andrew asked, his right hand still fisted in Neil’s shirt.

“No,” Neil assured him.

“Huh.” Andrew eyed Jorea, who went to join the other pixies who were sitting on the table, with some consideration before he yanked Neil a little closer. “Yes or no?” he asked as he held his other hand near Neil’s left ear.

That made Neil smile. “Yes.” Then he let out a faint moan as Andrew’s fingers danced along the sensitive flesh light enough to make him shiver, the same time that his shirt was let go and his left hand was picked up.

“Just my head again.”

“Oh-okay.” Neil shivered a little more as he scraped his thumbnail lightly along Andrew’s chin and couldn’t help but laugh as the weary sigh that provoked, then slid his fingers through the necromancer’s tousled hair. The strands were short and thick and slipped so easily through his fingers, a contrast to the warmth of Andrew’s skin.

Andrew’s teasing touch drew one more low moan out of him and then the bastard stepped aside. “Get some tea in you, you look ready to fall asleep at any moment. And don’t even think to give anything to those flying pests today.”

Neil’s frown turned into a playful grin as he reached for the plate of croissants. “What was that? _Come here_ ,” he called out to the pixies as he put the plate down in front of them. “ _Enjoy_.”

His defiance earned him a flat look while he set down a platter of pasties for the wolves as well, and he laughed while Andrew poured him a large mug of tea. “Drink all of it,” he was told; he’d managed the first sip when Kevin finally came into the room.

His stomach queasy as the tea more or less settled, Neil gave the Tuatha de Danann a wary look as Andrew munched on a pasty while standing next to him. “I’m good now, you can leave,” Kevin told the fawning Brownies. “You’ve done more than enough.”

“Food was delivered for the others, and we’ll search for the changeling for you,” the one Brownie with the white kerchief told Kevin while giving him yet another bow. Nothing else was said until the small Fae left the room.

“You’re having them look for Seth?” Andrew asked as he nudged at Neil, probably to get him to drink the damn tea.

“Yes, Wymack asked me since he’s really worried about the damn fool,” Kevin explained as he poured himself some coffee. “He’s never neglected his duty like this before.”

Neil found that difficult to believe, but then again, he didn’t really know the changeling very well. “It seems to me that if you find the goblin fruit, you find him.”

“Not bad for an idiot,” Andrew remarked before giving him another nudge. “Less semi-intelligent remarks, more drinking.”

“You’re a bastard,” Neil ‘remarked’.

“And you’re not drinking.” Andrew reached over to tap the mug. “Now.”

Sighing as he wondered if Jorea knew any curses to render the asshole silent, Neil did as he was told and struggled to not gag as he drank so much of something not from the Dark Road. Once it was all gone, Andrew handed him a small scone. “Really?”

“Eat it.” When Neil went to complain, his dark blond brows drew together. “It’s been a few days since you’ve eaten much more than fruit. Even if it’s not from the Dark Road, it has to do something for you.”

Not much, but Neil wasn’t in the mood to complain so he settled for glaring as he choked down the small pastry which he’d liked once upon a time. All the while, Kevin sipped his coffee with a dumfounded expression on his face.

“What?” Andrew asked, his tone too quiet to be trusted.

“Uhm, nothing!” Kevin made a sudden fuss over preparing some oatmeal for breakfast, so Andrew had more pastries and coffee before going off to get ready for the day.

Once he was done with the damn scone, Neil had a couple pieces of the remaining fruit he’d brought along and a little water, then took his turn in the bathroom when Andrew was finished. It was no surprise that Jorea and the other pixies descended upon him once he was finished changing his clothes and stepped back into the bedroom to braid his hair yet and stick more flowers in it, making him look forward to when he could return to the knowe.

They once again met up at Wymack's suite, where there was a strained silence which Neil put down to the ongoing absence of Seth, but Matt rallied upon Neil's arrival to wish him luck and Dan even leaned over Pilier to pat him on the shoulder. As soon as everyone had gathered together, Wymack told them to get their asses in gear so they could watch the Moriyamas lose for once.

Neil wasn't so sure about that, not when they'd done what they could to tip things in their favor, but he kept his mouth shut that time. Still, Andrew reached over to give the back of his neck a quick squeeze since he could feel Neil's emotions, which made Neil sigh a little and released some of the tension in his body even as Jorea muttered about presumptuous fake kings.

There were a lot of people standing in the hallways for some reason instead of gathered in the court, but Neil didn't pay them any mind, not when Ombré and Danseur were whining for attention, when Jorea chatted about new ideas for jinxes and Kevin argued with Andrew about just how soon they could return to the Dark Road to look for the ring (as in right away, while Andrew delighted in repeating 'no'). However, he did notice a group of people standing in front of the entrance to the large hall where the High Court gathered and caught the familiar, dread sense of his father's magic.

Looking up as Andrew's stringent emotions poured over the bond, as Kevin fell quiet and shuffled closer to the necromancer, Neil blinked in surprise at the bedraggled state of the people gathered in front of him; everyone in the Moriyamas' party wore rumpled clothes, the black and red garments heavily wrinkled and a few knights sporting disheveled hair and scuffed boots. Even Nathan and his people were marked with what Neil took for evident signs of Brownie displeasure, though not as heavy-handed as the Moriyamas - their brown and gold garments didn't hang as neatly on their bodies as usual, their boots didn't gleam and a few of them appeared as if they hadn't gotten much sleep.

The only person who appeared untouched by the small Fae's displeasure was an unknown figure standing off to the side dressed in all black save for a red, birdlike emblem on his tunic, his black hair trimmed close to his scalp and his expression inscrutable as he met Neil's gaze. He appeared a little older than Riko, his features a little more refined, but he was clearly a Tengu, clearly a Moriyama.

Ichirou Moriyama.

Neil’s steps faltered as he recalled what Jean had told him the night before, what he’d heard about the young lord during the years he’d spent in Europe with his mother while running from his father. Kengo had built up the Moriyama clan’s power by selling opium to mortals and goblin fruit to Fae, and weapons to both, was known to be ruthless and clever – traits passed down to his son. Nothing Neil saw before him belied those stories, made him feel he would be in any better hands as Ichirou’s possession than Tetsuji’s.

Ichirou regarded him with that unwavering gaze for several seconds, his eyes flickering down to the shadow wolves for a moment and then he nodded as if coming to some sort of decision. When Andrew reached out for the back of Neil’s dark grey hooded tunic to pull him closer, Ichirou gave him an appraising glance as well, and Kevin next before leaving to go into the court.

“That’s the brother?” Andrew asked, his voice flat but his emotions sharp enough to make Neil wince as he hoped the two men avoided each other.

“Yes,” Kevin answered, his voice hoarse as he rubbed at his left hip as if missing his sword. “Ichirou.”

“He’s hot,” Nicky said in a weak voice and a trembling grin; Neil took it for an attempt to make a joke and Aaron followed through with a light smack to his cousin’s side. “I’m just saying, evil can be sexy.”

“How can you be so dumb and still breathe?” Aaron complained, but for some reason most of his attention seemed focused on Andrew.

“Because this much beauty must exist somehow,” Nicky shot back, which earned him a much firmer smack from Wymack who told him to put the stupidity on hold for the time being.

Neil noticed Jean among the Evermore knights but didn’t try to catch the Leannan Sidhe’s attention, not when it was in Jean’s best interest to be ignored after last night; all that mattered to him was that Jean only seemed to be sporting a bruised right cheek and otherwise moved normally. Still, Kevin became flustered for some reason and he glared in Riko’s direction as he entered the court.

Andrew reached out to tug on one of the braids in Neil’s hair when Neil hesitated to enter, which prompted a slight smile from Neil. “Unless someone kills that prick of a father of yours real quick, I’m not raising anyone else for you today.”

“Don’t get my hopes up.” Feeling better, Neil gave him a nod then walked up to the dais with Wymack and Betsy while Andrew and the rest of the Foxes took the same seats as the day before. He resumed his place in front of the High Court once more with the wolves gathered around him and the pixies settled wherever they wanted. Out in front of everyone, he felt the weight of their stares as if an unwelcome touch, as the press of rough fingers against his skin. He wanted to shiver, to hunch over to escape the gazes, to use the shadows and slip onto the Dark Road but had sworn to remain in the knowe and submit himself to the High Court's verdict.

No wonder Andrew called him an idiot and his mother told him he was a fool.

He allowed himself a quick glance over at his friend, who sat in the front bench off to the left, his expression impassive as always and arms crossed over his broad chest, with an anxious-looking Kevin and a surly as always Aaron next to him. Nicky, who sat on Aaron's other side, gave him a slight wave, while Matt and Dan grinned in encouragement.

Neil gave a slight nod then looked down at Ombré who leaned against him, determined not to glance off to the right where his father and the Moriyamas stood. It was bad enough that he'd hear them soon enough, would have to bear the High Court's verdict, that he'd savor the little remaining peace as long as he could.

It only took a few more seconds before the same Tuatha de Danann from the day before split from the Fae sitting on the dais to walk forward, her green and white robe even more elaborate than the previous one, her blue hair braided in a crown design with white flowers threaded into the locks. "Everyone will remain quiet while we read out the verdict." She seemed to give a lingering glance to Wymack, who stood only a few feet away from Neil. "We heard from several people yesterday, from the living and the dead, from the defendant himself, and then we convened to spend the rest of the day debating." She paused as she slid her hands into the opposite sleeves of the richly embroidered robe, her expression grave, and Neil braced himself for the worst. "Tetsuji Moriyama, you have argued that Nathaniel Wesninski is a powerful, delusional young man who needs to be controlled." Off to Neil's right, Tetsuji nodded in agreement while Nathan gave Neil a cruel smile and Ichirou studied him with a rapt expression.

"David Wymack, you have argued that Nathaniel Wesninski is of sound mind and has sought safe haven with you, that he will only be abused and used in the Moriyamas' hands. That he will be safe from the rest of the Fae with you as well."

Wymack grunted as if he wanted to say something but remained quiet while Betsy nodded, her right hand on Wymack's arm as if to ensure that he minded his manners.

The spokeswoman nodded to Nathaniel. "And you, Nathaniel Wesninski, have said that you want nothing to do with your father or the Moriyamas, have charged your father with the murder of your mother, his wife. This charge was confirmed by the shade of Mary Hatford Wesninski."

That all sounded very hopeful, except the urge to run inside of Neil didn't go away, the need to slip into the shadows and flee. Except he didn't trust the way some of the Fae up on the dais stared at him, the hunger in their eyes so bright and frightening.

"This is our decision," the Tuatha de Danann said, her voice loud and clear as it rang out through the large hall. "Nathaniel Wesninski is of sound mind." The Foxes let out a cheer at that, the noise cut short as the spokeswoman made a curt wave of her right hand. "However, Tetsuji Moriyama is correct in that he is a danger to the Fae, in that he possesses powers that require him to be placed under control."

"That's utter bullshit," Wymack shouted as he lunged forward, his face twisted with outrage. "You ca-" Another curt wave froze him silent and in place.

Meanwhile, a slight smile curved Tetsuji's thin lips while Riko smirked at Neil. "Then you have sided with us?"

"No," the spokeswoman said, her tone frigid as she slowly lowered her hand and quick to wipe away that smile, that smirk. "Your liegeman killed his own wife and you have already abused Nathaniel, we will not be returning him to your hands."

Ichirou stepped forward with a slight bow of his head while the audience in the room took to mumbling and Neil fought not to panic. "Then give him to me. I'm not my uncle, am not so foolish as to mistreat a valuable resource such as Wesninski."

"He's not a _thing_ ," Matt cried out, only to be silenced as well.

"We have made our decision," the spokeswoman replied as she shook her head. "Nathaniel Wesninski will remain here, rather than be handed over to any one knowe. We have the-"

"You want him for yourselves," someone from the audience shouted. "This isn't about impartiality or being fair! You're just-"

She cut them off before they could finish, her brows drawn together with frustration. "I said that everyone would be silent. This decision was made after great deliberation, when it's obvious that-"

"I won't stay here," Neil warned as the wolves shifted around him with teeth barred and the pixies launched themselves into the air with a flurry of iridescent dust. "What makes you think you can keep me here?"

Before the Tuatha de Danann could speak, a Bokwus rose onto his feet and approached the edge of the dais, his expression stern on his brightly painted face. "Because if you don't, the Foxhole Court will pay for your disobedience."

Fury burned through Neil as the wolves snarled and the pixies shrieked curses at the High Court, as several of the Foxes swore and Wymack once more attempted to lunge at the High Court. Meanwhile, Riko laughed, along with several Evermore knights, Lola's giggle a shrill note among their cruel amusement, and even Nathan chuckled. "Should have taken the offer last night," Neil's father remarked.

Neil flexed his right hand, the gauntlet shining and fluid over his skin once more. "I won't let you do this," he swore as his magic burned through his blood and bones. He wouldn't let them harm the only people who had ever taken him in and offered him a home, wouldn't let them cage him, wouldn't let them use him. Not if he and the wolves had to show them why that was such a mistake.

"You have no choice," the Bokwus told him while the rest of the room muttered and stomped their feet in growing displeasure.

"You-" He jolted at Andrew's sudden appearance at his side, the solid yet comforting presence of his friend which prevented him from moving forward, which settled his magic to a low hum in his body.

"You really didn't think this through, did you?" Andrew paused to inhale on the cigarette he held between his left middle finger and forefinger then blew out a thin stream of smoke. "You think anyone is going to stand for this? You taking the prize for yourself?”

A Ghillie Dhu approached next, tall and thin with bits of moss clinging to his fine robe of green velvet. “We are merely preventing a war from breaking out among the rest of the knowes as they seek to claim Nathaniel for their own.”

Andrew scoffed at that while more hissing and booing could be heard from the seats and balconies. “Spare us the lies,” he said as he flicked his cigarette at the dais. “You know what he is and you want the power for yourselves.”

“We seek to maintain the peace for North America,” insisted the Tuatha de Danann even as she wouldn’t meet Andrew’s eyes.

That prompted another derisive scoff from him. “Bullshit. Enough of this. _Tell everyone the truth_.”

All of the Fae on the dais jerked at the command, their eyes wide as Andrew’s magic – the _torc’s_ magic  -tore into them, as they struggled to resist. The air reeked as they did their best, the stench of so much magic unleashed in desperation, until Andrew shook his head and clicked his tongue. “ _Tell me the truth_ ,” he repeated with more force as the dark cloth of his shirt around his neck began to flake away, as the gleam of gold began to show through.

“Muh-Maeb’s heir!” the Ghillie Dhu shouted first, followed by a Guillyn Veggey and a Merrow, then the Tuatha de Danann and the rest of the Fae.

Neil shuddered upon hearing it said out loud, at having it acknowledged like that, then twitched when he felt Andrew’s warm hand rest on the back of his neck. He twitched again when Kevin came to stand on his right side.

“It’s clear that the High Court’s judgment is cast in doubt over this matter,” Kevin called out. “Yet it’s been proven that Nathan Wesninski is responsible for the death of Mary Hatford Wesninski and so should have no bearing on his son, nor his liege, Tetsuji Moriyama.”

“Mind your tongue, Day,” Nathan called out with that sharp smile of his, his hands loose at his sides as if he longed to hold a weapon in them.

Kevin ignored the warning as he looked around the large hall. “Many of you know David Wymack, know how he’s a man of his word. If Nathaniel is to be entrusted to anyone, let him stay at the Foxhole Court.”

Why did he have to be ‘entrusted’ to anyone? Yet Neil bit down onto his own tongue for once, helped by the quick squeeze given to his nape in warning.

There were encouraging shouts from the people gathered in the room, and many even took to chanting Wymack’s name. It looked as if some of the High Court wanted to complain but after a few seconds of that retreated back to their seats in silence.

It seemed as if Tetsuji and Nathan definitely wanted to complain, but Wymack stepped forward and shook his head. “You lost this one, just admit it. You’ve made too many mistakes, too many enemies, especially with the shit you pulled these last couple of days.”

“You-“ Tetsuji fell quiet when Ichirou appeared at his side, his expression smooth and dark eyes unreadable; he was quick to incline his head to his nephew while Neil was surprised to see his father behave _wary_ of all things, his eyes intent on the young Tengu. “My lord.”

“He’s right, now is not the time to get into this.” Ichirou eyed Wymack as if taking note of him and then directed his attention toward Kevin, Andrew and Neil. “You’re young and have much to learn, including that strength isn’t true power. You’ll soon know your proper places.”

“It won’t be at your feet,” Andrew said as he tugged Neil closer to his side.

All Ichirou did was give him a mysterious smile before walking away, with Tetsuji and Nathan quick to take their places at his back. Riko lingered a moment longer to cast first Andrew and then Kevin a virulent look before he followed, while Lola gave Neil a mocking grin and a wave as hate curled deep in his gut and Nuit snarled low and vicious.

Still aware of the people staring at them, Neil ducked his head and sidled closer to Andrew. “Ah, that was… obvious?” He motioned to the exposed torc with his right hand.

“Effective,” Andrew argued as he swatted at Neil’s hand before he looked over at Kevin. “Are we actually to believe that you’re growing a backbone there, Day?”

Kevin’s response was a rude gesture, which made Dan laugh as she came over to stand next to Wymack. “So, we won, right? That means we can get the hell out of here and go home.”

“Not so fast, we still need to find Seth,” Wymack reminded her while Abby braved the wolves to give Neil a quick hug. “What did the Brownies say?”

“That they’ll help look for him.”

“Good.” Wymack nodded as he motioned for everyone to start moving, his gaze considering as he studied Neil and Andrew. “The three of you stay in your rooms while we go over every inch of this place looking for that moron.”

Andrew wasn’t happy about that, but somehow Neil doubted it was for the same reason as him; “You two stick together,” the necromancer told his cousin and brother.

Aaron grimaced while Nicky grinned. “Will do, and Erik will help us so don’t worry!”

“Well I’m plenty worried, I’ve seen enough of the two of you sucking face the last couple of days to scar me for centuries,” Aaron complained.

Nicky’s grin took on a sly edge. “You know what they say about complaining too much. Maybe you’re not really straight, maybe-“ He laughed when Aaron attempted to punch him in the stomach, at least until Andrew used his spirits to separate the two imbeciles.

Meanwhile, Allison had grown pensive, which seemed unusual for her. “He’s probably holed up in some wine cellar with a few casks of goblin fruit wine,” she told Wymack while Renee reached over to rub her left shoulder. “He’ll come back when he runs out of the stuff, he always does.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anybody.

“Maybe, maybe not, but he’s a Fox and we don’t leave him behind.” Wymack’s tone left no room for argument. “Rheman should help us, so we’ll find him soon.”

At Andrew’s considering look and unspoken question, Neil sighed and reached to give Jorea, who had just settled back on his shoulder, a light poke on her leg. “ _Will you help, too? We can leave here that much faster if you and the others do_.”

She frowned as she considered the request and then snapped her teeth as she grinned. “ _No more complaining about this_ ,” she demanded as she tugged on his hair – he took it to mean that he’d have to give up fighting over the pixies messing with his appearance from then on and sighed.

“Do we really need Seth?” Neil asked, and sighed again when several of the Foxes gave him a hurt look for the question. “Never mind.”

“He’s one of us,” Matt said with a crushed expression. “Of course. He’d help you out.”

Somehow, Neil doubted that, but dammit, the changeling was a Fox. “ _It’s a deal_ ,” he told Jorea while doing his best not to wince.

She laughed in evident glee as she launched herself into the air with the rest of the pixies quick to follow; Andrew cursed beneath his breath when they were covered in pixie dust as a result, something Neil was used to at that point.

What he wasn’t used to were the people bowing and curtsying as they made their way to the one exit, people lined up along the side of the room as if waiting for him to pass. People staring at him and Andrew and even Kevin, people murmuring about ‘Oberon’s torc’ and ‘changeling’, about ‘the gauntlet’ and ‘Maeb’, whispers about ‘just like the queens’ and ‘Kayleigh’s child’. It made Neil want to flee into the shadows, want to go to the Dark Road where it was quiet, where there weren’t any other people, but he couldn’t.

Andrew stared at them with boredom, Kevin held his head high and gazed straight ahead as if nothing was happening, while Neil let the shadow wolves act as a buffer between him and everything, his right hand on Ombré’s head and his gaze focused on the floor. When someone threw a nosegay of roses and laurel down in front of them, Neil couldn’t help his reaction and instinctively slid into the shadows, no longer bound by his oath to High Court.

He couldn’t flee to the Dark Road and he couldn’t leave just yet, so he returned to the suite where it was quiet and uncrowded. Groaning in relief despite feeling Andrew’s anger and consternation, he sank down on the nearest chair so he could pull off the damn boots and relax a little. Slumped down and debating if he should have a piece of fruit, Neil was startled when there was a knock on the door.

Since Andrew would just barge into the room and so would his father or any of the Moriyamas, Neil sighed and went to answer it with the shadow wolves – if it was someone trying to bother or harm him, the Brownies could deal with the resulting mess.

It was Stuart, so no mess.

“Uhm, hello?” He gave his uncle a nervous grin as he stepped aside to allow the man into the suite. Around then he sensed at least one of Andrew’s spirits enter the room as well and figured that his friend was checking up on him.

“Figured you came here when you disappeared.” Stuart gave him an exasperated look and shook his head. “Not like it was a best kept secret, but did that idiot changeling really think it was a great idea to let everyone know about you being Maeb’s heir?” While Neil took in the fact that someone had called _Andrew_ an idiot for once, Stuart carried on. “Ah well, at least he fucked himself over, too, by revealing that he’s Oberon’s heir. That should take some of the heat off of you.”

“Wonderful,” Neil remarked in a deadpan manner as he scratched Danseur’s nose.

Stuart huffed at that. “Yeah, it is.” He looked around the room and went over to help himself to some of Kevin’s liquor. “Tell me you’re getting out of here as soon as the others return.”

“Not quite, we need to find someone first.” At his uncle’s curious look, Neil shrugged. “Goblin fruit’s involved.”

“Nasty stuff,” Stuart remarked as he poured himself some whiskey. “It’s not wise to stick around here, not after the shit those bastards tried to pull, but it means we’ve got a little time.” He gave Neil a serious look as he picked up the full glass. “I meant what I said in that you’ve got a home with me in my knowe, and there’s your mother’s just waiting for you to claim it.” When Neil’s face went blank, he sighed in a weary manner. “But I’ve heard a lot of good things about that Wymack of yours, I’ve been checking up on him, so I’m not going to push, okay? Just know that you’ve got options, kiddo.”

Some of Neil’s standoffishness with his uncle faded and he smiled at the man. “I… appreciate that.”

Stuart appeared to relax a little upon hearing that, too. “I still think you should come with me to the UK, but you’re not a child.” He paused to drink a good bit of the whiskey and seemed to marshal his thoughts as well. “All right, I said we needed to talk before you left, so let’s do it. I couldn’t get much out of Mary,” his face twisted with grief for a moment before he shook his head again, “but I was left with the impression that she hadn’t told you much.”

“No,” Neil agreed as he felt his own grief at the thought of his mother, of her shade and just… everything.

“Not too surprised.” Stuart rubbed at his left temple with the heel of his hand and groaned. “Where the fuck to begin?” He paused again and just when he was about to speak, the door opened to admit a scowling Kevin and a too-blank faced Andrew.

“What, story-time without us? How rude of you.”

Feeling the anger over their bond, Neil groaned and wondered if he could stomach enough brandy to get drunk.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> FINALLY! Some traction there! Andrew deserves it after some of the stuff thrown at him.
> 
> Not that things are going to heat up any time soon between the boys, for obvious reasons. And still some things which can trip them up.
> 
> And you get your answer about Kevin. :) Mostly.
> 
> Hmm, obviously a lot of things to address in the next chapter, since there was so much focus on Andrew and Neil in this one (and Andrew and Neil and Kevin). Speaking of which... how long is Andrew going to torment Kevin about going to fetch the ring?
> 
> As always, the comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> *******


	12. Ready to Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this one took a little extra time, it was a REALLY busy week (just when I thought that things would slow down, too). 
> 
> Mentions of past abuse and if you have a thing about throwing up, there's a short passage in the middle (just a few sentences). Think that's it for the warnings.  
> *******

*******

Andrew sensed some apprehension from Neil as the idiot went over to the table which held the bottles of alcohol while Stuart gave him a disapproving look. “I don’t see how your presence is required for this discussion, though I do want to talk to you later, you mouthy little shit.” Stuart’s eyes narrowed as he jabbed his right forefinger at Andrew. “Where do you get off proclaiming you’re serious about my nephew without coming to me first? Someone common born like you, with no title or knowe or anything?”

It took Andrew a moment to figure out what the hell the prick was talking about, and mostly because Neil took to cursing in old Fae as panic flowed over their bond and the idiot snatched up a bottle of brandy to drink straight from it, only to sputter after the first gulp. Meanwhile, Kevin stood off to the side with a bemused expression on his face which was mostly wiped away when Andrew’s brows drew together. “Since when do we still live in the eighteenth century? I don’t need to talk to you about anything.”

“Bullshit,” Stuart snapped. “We’re Fae, we’ll always be old-fashioned, especially about things like this. You just don’t-“

“Uncle Stuart.” It wasn’t so much the seriousness in Neil’s voice which made the prick shut up but the low rumble of the shadow wolves as well as Neil standing there with the bottle clutched in his hands and his expression blank. “No one is ever going to tell me who I- no one tells me anything about _that_ , okay?” There was a wave of nausea and disgust just then, and Andrew didn’t think it had anything to do with the brandy. “ _I_ decide who I want. If it’s Andrew then there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Stuart met Neil’s too-blue eyes for a couple of seconds and flinched. “Look, kiddo, I just-“

“No,” Neil told him in a too flat tone. “Not that it’s any of your business, but there’s nothing wrong with Andrew. _Nothing_. I don’t care if he doesn’t have a knowe or a title, those things certainly didn’t do my mother any good when it came to my father, did they?”

Harsh, but the truth, considering the way Stuart winced at that jab. “I’m just looking out for you, Nathaniel.”

/ _Truth_./

“I’ve managed this long without you doing that,” Neil remarked, another cruel hit, then seemed to take pity on the man. “I don’t want to fight with you, it’s not why you came.” He offered a slight smile as he went to sit down on one of the room’s couches and nodded to his uncle. “You were going to tell me what you know about the Dark Road and things.”

“Yeah, _you_.” Stuart eyed Andrew and Kevin with evident trepidation; just for that and the whole ‘common born’ comment, Andrew went to join Neil on the couch before the damn mutts took up all of the space. He could sense Neil’s surprise at that, but he didn’t feel any discomfort or fear at his presence, even felt some delight as their shoulders brushed together, as their fingers overlapped for a moment when he reached for the bottle of brandy so he could have some.

He was still angry with the idiot for leaving like that back in the hallway even though he understood what had prompted Neil to flee, even though Neil had the shadow wolves to help protect him. He didn’t like the thought of Neil going off alone when there were so many enemies around, when people knew what the gauntlet meant and the Moriyamas were furious at being denied what they wanted. But they would talk about that later – right now they would get some answers and he didn’t have to admit that there had been something warm and strange flaring to life inside of him to hear Neil defend him like that to Stuart.

Andrew wasn’t used to people standing up for him like that.

“We’re all good friends here,” Andrew said before lifting the bottle to his lips.

“Bloody hell.” Stuart tossed back the rest of what looked to be whiskey in the glass he held in his left hand then went over to pour himself some more, something which Kevin joined in on before each of them sat down a couple of minutes later. “All right then, let’s get this done with, yeah?” Stuart said as he seemed to study Neil and the shadow wolves lying on the floor front of him. “You know of your grandparents, right? Elia and Silas?”

Neil nodded as he took to playing with the gauntlet. “Firstborn Scáth Sidhe. Mom told me a little about them, mostly that they went off with Maeb when the Three left.”

“Yeah.” Stuart paused to drink some of his whiskey. “Thing is, they wanted us to go with them, but Maeb told them ‘no’.” That caught Kevin’s interest, enough to make him set the bottle of vodka aside mostly untouched. “She said there had to be a legacy left behind, had to one who would take her place.” He nodded to Neil. “It didn’t make much sense at the time, until about a century after they left and the rumors started about there being heirs.”

Andrew could feel the pensive turn to Neil’s emotions and returned the bottle of brandy to him. “So you figured things out then?”

“Not exactly.” Stuart frowned as he rubbed at the back of his head, his expression a bit rueful. “We knew we were Scáth Sidhe, that we had access to the Dark Road and that Maeb wanted us to stay behind for some reason. We also knew that unlike others who could walk the Dark Road, the shadow wolves left us alone.” He nodded to the mutts who just lay there in front of Neil. “No matter how long we spent on the Dark Road, they never bothered us. Mary and I didn’t know if that meant we might be the heirs or have some role to play in deciding them, and to be honest? We didn’t care.”

He paused again to have some more whiskey, and when he lowered the glass there was a sad twist to his lips. “Then she met Nathan Wesninski and everything got fucked up.” Neil took a large gulp of brandy upon hearing that, and the nausea didn’t mask the unhappiness, pain and grief he felt upon thinking about his parents.

“Did he marry her because of your bloodline?” Kevin asked, as always focused on knowledge and not its impact.

Stuart’s thin brows drew together at the question and then he sighed. “I honestly don’t know, but it didn’t seem that way at first – I would have objected if I thought it was like that. She was happy when they got together.” He cast Neil a sympathetic look while Neil shook his head in disbelief, eyes downcast and the bottle held tight in his hands; when Ombré came over to rest her head in his lap, Andrew took the bottle away so Neil could pet her instead. “Then she went onto the Dark Road one day when she was pregnant, and that’s when she realized the truth.”

Neil looked up from rubbing Ombré’s nose to give his uncle a questioning look. “What happened?”

“She told me she was only a month or so along, not even showing yet, and as soon as she stepped onto the Dark Road, the wolves were there.” Stuart motioned to the four around Neil. “They didn’t attack her, but they followed her everywhere as if faithful hounds. She fled them at first, but it kept happening every time she returned, and then she realized why they were doing it.”

Neil chewed on his bottom lip while Kevin stared at him with wide eyes. “Because of me.”

“Yeah.” Stuart mumbled something in old Fae while he shook his head. “She told me that she cursed them out and swore to them that they had to stay away from her or she’d never bring you onto the Dark Road once you were born, that she’d bind you in iron so you’d never be able to shadow walk,” Neil flinched at that while Kevin gasped then mumbled in French, “and it seemed to work since she told me they left the two of you alone after that.” Stuart stared into his empty glass and got up to fetch more alcohol while Nuit bared his fangs, a slight pull of lips. “She told me she did it so no one else would figure out what you were, dammit.”

“They didn’t approach me until after her death so it worked,” Neil said, his emotions such a turbulent mix that it was giving Andrew a headache; he had some more of the brandy before he shoved the bottle back into the idiot’s hands. “They- oh.” Neil blinked at it for a moment and summoned a weak smile for Andrew. “Okay.”

“So you’re saying that your sister figured out that Neil was the heir before he was even born and told you,” Andrew summed up. “Yet she didn’t mention anything to him.” Mary sounded like a wonderful woman, yes indeed.

Stuart’s expression darkened for a moment before he drained the refilled glass of whiskey, which he slammed down onto the table. Once his hands were empty, he pulled a pack of cigarettes seemingly out of thin air, which was a trick Andrew would have to look into one day. After a stick was lit and the scent of cloves filled the room he resumed talking. “Mary was… fuck, she was stubborn and who the hell knew why she did half the things she did, okay?” The man’s expression grew shuttered as he once more looked over at Neil, his eyes unfocused as if he was seeing something – no, _someone_ – else just then. “I loved her, she was my twin, my other half, but fuck me if I could understand her, really. I don’t know why she didn’t tell you what you were and what awaited you on the Dark Road.”

“Maybe… maybe she knew I wouldn’t want to leave it, then.” Neil’s voice was hoarse as he rubbed Ombré’s ears. “I was always arguing for us to stay on it longer, to run a little more before we returned to the Fae realms or the mortal world.” The grief grew stronger as he hunched over a little more, until Andrew reached over to gently grab hold of the back of his neck. Neil shivered at that and drew in a slow breath while Ombré gave his face a quick lick. “I… she never told me anything about heirs.”

Kevin leaned forward, his expression intent and the vodka still ignored, which was rare. “Just how well-known is this whole ‘heir’ business? Because it seems to be a lot more known than I would have expected, considering everything that’s happened in the last couple of days.” His jaw clenched as he took to rubbing the back of his left hand. “I only know a little about it… but I mostly grew up at Evermore. I’m beginning to wonder if there’s been deliberate gaps in my education.”

Stuart scoffed at that. “Considering that Tetsuji definitely knows about it? I’d say so.” He regarded Kevin for a few seconds while he blew smoke out of his nostrils. “Rumor is that he and your mother were looking for Titania’s ring when they stumbled upon how to open up the knowes, so yeah, I think he’s holding things back from you. He’s probably one of the top experts on the matter now that your mother’s dead.”

Oh, wasn’t that interesting? Andrew took to massaging the back of Neil’s neck in an effort to keep the idiot calm in the face of all the revelations. “So he might have known something when Wesninski married your sister.”

For a moment it looked as if Stuart was going to cross the room and take a swing at Andrew for that comment, and then he threw his cigarette aside so he could rub at his face while Neil flinched and would have hunched over some more if it wasn’t for Andrew’s hand on the back of his neck. “I don’t… I don’t like to think about that,” Stuart admitted in a rough voice. “It’s the only thing keeping me from stepping out from that bastard’s shadow right now and slitting his throat – both of their throats. But Wesninski’s going to die by my hand soon enough, now that I heard from Mary herself that the bastard landed the killing blow, I swore that to her.”

Neil flinched at that oath, a Fae ball of guilt and pain and sorrow, so Andrew ran his fingers along the idiot’s left ear to make him gasp instead, to feel something different, and arched an eyebrow when Neil twisted about to look at him in disbelief. “You….”

“Yes?”

Neil blinked in confusion and a bit of gratitude before gazing back at his suspicious uncle. “He’s not an easy man to kill.” It wasn’t difficult to pick up the hate he felt for his father just then, and after meeting the asshole, Andrew couldn’t blame him for feeling that way.

“I’ve got a bit more resources than you and your mom, kiddo,” Stuart snapped, only to appear contrite when Neil’s expression became blank. “I didn’t mean it like that, there were reasons why your mother refused my help even if I thought that she was being a stubborn fool.”

“I… I never understood why she didn’t ask for that help,” Neil admitted as he slumped a little against Andrew, who allowed it since he could feel how upset the shadow walker was just then. “She didn’t go to Night’s Haven because we could be tracked down there, Nathan would have just broken the wards, but she could have taken him to one of the High Courts.”

“Except then it would have come out about him handing you over to Tetsuji and maybe even about you being Maeb’s heir,” Kevin pointed out.

“That wasn’t Neil’s fault.” Andrew gave Kevin a narrow look when he felt Neil’s guilt spike once more.

“I didn’t- that wasn’t what I meant!” Kevin’s eyes went wide as he shook his head.

Stuart scoffed, the sound loud and harsh, as he sat down once more. “She should have risked it, in my opinion. Tetsuji and Nathan suspected that our bloodline was tied to the whole heir thing in one way or another. She told me that one time Tetsuji asked her about if she’d ever found any types of buildings on the Dark Road, a cottage or something like that.”

That made Neil frown again, but more out of curiosity than anything negative. “I’ve never come across anything like that.” He tugged on one of Ombré’s ears. “You guys holding out on me?” All the she-wolf did was make a low rumbling sound and wag her tail, while Kevin perked up and leaned forward once again.

“We really do need to return to the Dark Road as soon-“

“No,” Andrew told the coward, and took some small satisfaction in the way Kevin’s face darkened in annoyance.

“But-“

“No.”

Stuart sighed when Kevin gave Andrew the finger. “As amusing as it is to watch children at play, I’m here for a reason.” He nodded to Neil. “Look, you’ve already gotten a taste of what awaits you, now that people know what you are. Some people aren’t going to be happy about there being heirs, it’s part of the reason why that bit of information wasn’t commonly known. Some people are going to look at you and see a barely grown Fae, and think that they can control you, can use you to their benefit. Some are going to think of you as the second coming of Maeb.”

/ _Truth_./

Neil twitched at each example and was shaking his head at the end. “I won’t let myself be used and I’m no one but myself,” he insisted. “I don’t care about what Maeb said or planned, I just want to be left alone.”

Big surprise there, but judging from the look of pity on Stuart’s face, he knew how unlikely that was, especially after today. “Your best hope of that would have been if Mary really had kept you from the Dark Road for all of your life, but she didn’t. You marked yourself well and good, I’ve never heard of anyone who’s survived living as long as you have on the Dark Road, who ate the food there and could leave the place let alone thrive on it.”

/ _Truth_./

“Mom didn’t… she just said I shouldn’t,” Neil mumbled as he seemed to focus his attention on Ombré. “There were all these stories that Lola and Romero told me, but I never trusted them.” She wagged her tail and Danseur came over to nudge his arm for attention, too.

Stuart cursed in old Fae for about a minute while Kevin gazed at him in interest, then jerked both of his hands through his short hair. “Could she have fucked things up any more? The Dark Road was Maeb’s playground, was her world, for fuck’s sake. I remember our father taking the two of us there one time when we were kids to show us how things were. We watched as Maeb unleashed the wolves to hunt on a Bendith y Mamau who had had poisoned the waters around several Kelpies with iron.” He lowered his hands to nod at Neil. “They followed her around just like they do you. Then again, you’re like a mirror image of her, you looked so much like her even as a child.”

/ _Truth_./

The more Andrew learned about Mary Hatford Wesninski, the more he realized that Neil never had the chance to be anything but fucked up – between his parents and being a pureblood. “So let’s see if we’ve got everything, shall we?” Andrew waited until Stuart looked at him before he continued. “Your sister fucked up by hiding the truth from Neil and not running with him the second he was born, if not sooner. But you’ll make it up to him by killing his bastard of a father a century or two too late.”

The room was quiet for about a minute while Kevin resumed drinking and Neil sighed as he pet the two she-wolves, and then Stuart scoffed. “Seriously, Nathaniel, is it the stress from the trial? People will understand you doing something a bit crazy considering the last few days once I explain it to them, just a foolish joke out on the dance floor.”

“Oh merde,” Kevin breathed out as he shook his head, while Neil’s temper flared.

“It’s not a joke,” the idiot gritted out between his teeth. “I’m not taking it back!”

/ _Truth_./

Moving slow enough so Neil could pull away if he wanted, Andrew slid his arm around Neil’s tense shoulders. “So, can I call you ‘uncle’ now?”

That earned him a look of utter disgust and a rude gesture before Stuart tried one more time to reach his nephew, who sat there without shaking off Andrew’s arm. “Nathaniel, people are going to be after you enough as it is. Don’t make yourself a bigger target by associating with another heir.”

“I’d think he’s one of the few people I can trust, considering he’s facing the same challenges I am,” Neil argued while the damn torc kept spouting off ‘ _truth_ ’ in Andrew’s head.

“Right, _Oberon’s heir_ ,” Stuart shot back. “I’m sure _Maeb_ would have a lot to say about the last person who wore that torc and how trustworthy they were, how well it worked out for our bloodline.” Then he shook his head and stood up. “But I can tell you’re a lot like your mother and you need to learn some things the hard way so I’ll save my breath. Just know that I’m here for you, kiddo, that you still have one family member you can trust and a couple of safe places to go when you need them.” He gave Neil a nod before he slipped away into the shadows.

It was quiet in the room for several seconds after the prick left, and then Neil slumped back against Andrew's arm as he let out a slow breath. "Can I declare this day over with already?" he asked as he folded his right arm over his eyes, a bit of a whine to his voice and his emotions exhausted.

Andrew reached up to tug on a lock of his hair. "Drama queen." That provoked a low whine from the idiot and an attempted smack at his hand which was prevented by Andrew running his fingers along Neil's ear.

Neil slumped some more and made a low, pleased sound, and Andrew's fingers trailed back down right when Kevin cleared his throat in a loud manner. Neil twitched at the noise and Pilier growled in warning at the sudden noise, while Andrew gave the coward a flat look.

"Uhm, your uncle had a point, you know, about the two of you.” Kevin looked over at them and sighed at Neil’s scowl. “You pretty much declared ‘hey, we’re together’ to everyone last night.”

/ _Truth_./

“Why does it matter?” There was a bite to each of Neil’s words as if he found them distasteful to speak. “Why would anyone care about Andrew and me?” His all-blue eyes narrowed even more as a pulse of spite hit Andrew. “It’s not like I danced with _Jean_ in the inner ring, so why do _you_ care?”

For a moment Andrew thought that Kevin was going to rise to the bait, but the coward managed to keep his temper under control. “Because _Jean_ isn’t the High King’s heir,” Kevin responded through gritted teeth. “Nor is he the Unseelie Queen’s heir, a pureblood tied to Maeb so closely.” He paused for dramatic effect, a habit that Andrew had always found annoying as hell. “Are you getting the picture yet?”

Neil stared at him while Andrew had a spirit smack the bastard on the back of the head. “More explaining and less drama.” And a certain talkative torc was going to be melted down into coins very soon.

“Dammit, Andrew.” Kevin managed a glare for about three seconds before he shook his head and had a little vodka. “Neil should know this shit, he’s a pureblood even if he hasn’t been in a court much the last century or so. He’s his uncle’s heir and presumably his father’s, too, and he inherited his mother’s knowe. That means he already has one knowe he can claim for his own and potentially two others, and that’s not taking into account his bloodlines, his magic and the gauntlet.” He gave Andrew a pointed look while Neil took to fidgeting, anxiety building over the link. “You think people are happy about some changeling who’s basically unknown except for the time he went berserk enough for the SEC to step in and slap him down to effectively claim someone like Neil?”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew gazed at him during the whole little… what was it, really? Put-down? Kevin trying to be helpful of all things? Him being patronizing as hell? A mix of all three? Whatever it was, Andrew had to push down on his growing temper while Neil seemed to have become offended. “Your point is?”

Kevin tapped his left fingers against the bottle as he raised it halfway to his lips but stopped. “They don’t like unimportant nobodies getting in the way of what they want.” Neil bristled at that, his temper flaring and the wolves growling. “They especially don’t like it when those nobodies turn out more powerful than them.”

/ _Truth._ /

“Andrew’s not a nobody,” Neil spat while Andrew envisioned flames in his head. “And I’m not a thing, dammit. I’m… it’s….” His temper got the better of him as he unleashed a torrent of old Fae which made Kevin blink and then start drinking in earnest, and before Neil’s voice grew loud enough for _him_ to be the one yelling, he slipped into the shadows with the mutts following a moment later.

Since Andrew had a sense of him being nearby and Wymack had told them to stay in the suite, he had a feeling where the idiot had gone and sighed as he stood up. “I don’t give a fuck what everyone thinks,” he informed Kevin. He never had and didn’t see that changing anytime soon.

“You should,” Kevin said when he lowered the mostly empty bottle of vodka, his voice rough and expression weary. “You’ve gotten away with everything before now because they’ve never cared about you. That will change after today.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew scoffed at that for both annoyances’ benefits. “No, it won’t, and so much for that backbone theory.” Wait until someone realized that there was a ring out there with his name on it. Andrew didn’t stick around for any semi-clever (or coherent) retort, he just made his way to into the bedroom to find a certain idiot.

The wolves were sprawled out on the floor of the balcony while Neil sat on the railing once more, his left knee pulled up to his chest with his arms wrapped around it and his expression pensive. Weaving his way through the mutts which thumped their tails as he passed them, Andrew went to stand in front of Neil and held up his hands. When the idiot nodded in permission, Andrew began to undo the many tiny braids and flick away the fragrant lilac blooms while Neil moaned in pleasure; he had to focus on the curly, soft strands coated with iridescent dust and not allow his fingers to stray to those ridiculous and ridiculously sensitive ears sticking out from the sides of Neil’s head.

“Who would think that an idiot who can’t even pick his own hairstyle is some prize catch,” Andrew said in a flat tone of voice as he tugged on a stubborn curl.

Neil heaved a deep sigh as he slumped forward almost enough to rest against Andrew and stopped just in time. “Go ahead and laugh, dammit.” His left leg had dropped down but he continued to hug his arms around his chest. “I know how Seth thinks about me, about us ‘purebloods’, and I’ve caught the derision from you a few times, too.” He stared at Andrew’s chest while he talked, and for once Andrew didn’t pick up a sense of fascination and wonder but bitterness and pain instead. “Part of me gets it, why we would seem spoiled and privileged to changelings, why things would seem so much easier for us, and on one hand it’s probably true. We live longer, our magic can be stronger, we have less weaknesses, more rights.” Yet he didn’t feel like he was happy about those things just then.

Andrew had to force his hands to still, to stop sliding through Neil’s hair, to stop feeling the strands curl against his skin and the shivers his actions provoked. Instead, he cupped them around the back of Neil’s head, his thumbs oh so close to the base of those elongated ears but didn’t do anything, didn’t stroke or force the idiot to look up at him. “Why isn’t it such a good thing, being a pureblood?”

“Because….” Neil closed his eyes and shivered, and that time Andrew let him fall forward those last couple of inches, let him rest his forehead against Andrew’s right shoulder while Andrew still cupped his head. That close, Andrew could feel those loose curls against his jaw, could smell roses and fallow leaves and something else, something exotic which reminded him of the shadow wolves and the Dark Road.

It should bother him, having Neil so close like this, but it didn’t.

 _That_ should bother him, but didn’t. Part of him wondered just how well the idiot was at casting jinxes and curses….

“Because,” Neil repeated, which jolted Andrew from his drifting thoughts, “there’s always a hidden price to these things. To be a pureblood is just that, to be _pure_.” Neil gave a sad laugh as he tucked his head a little more against Andrew’s shoulder. “My grandparents were Maeb’s favored children, were her most adored among all the ones she bore Oberon. I think… I think there’s a reason why Stuart hasn’t married, and it probably has to do with my mother. I don’t know… she never talked about why she chose _him_ ,” from the way he said that word and the loathing behind it, Andrew guessed Neil meant his father, “but I heard Lola taunt her one day about how she had most of the Fae after her and she chose _him_ , how she must regret it.”

/ _Truth_./

He was quiet for about a minute after that, his emotions a maelstrom of pain, sorrow, guilt and hatred, and didn’t resume speaking until Andrew’s fingers rubbed gently at his scalp. “What I mean is, what I think Kevin means is, there’s pressure. Keep the bloodlines pure, keep them strong, make them stronger, make an alliance that’ll benefit your clan and things like that.” Neil gave another sad laugh. “My mother didn’t do too well, did she?”

“She had you,” Andrew reminded the idiot. “Seems to me she did one thing right.”

Neil drew in a shuddering breath at that and his arms uncoiled from around himself, but again he stopped short of touching Andrew while hesitation built inside of him – he must still be remembering Andrew’s instructions from the night before about nothing below the neck. Before Andrew could decide if he wanted to change that, to push things any further than they had already been pushed at the moment, Neil loosely wrapped his arms around his waist and gave a weak laugh. “That point can be argued.”

“Don’t even try it,” Andrew warned as he gave the idiot’s hair a quick tug. “Okay, so the inbreeding’s showing a little bit when it comes to your intelligence,” he gave another tug when Neil squawked at that comment, “but you are the Unseelie heir.”

“For all the good it does me,” Neil grumbled as he turned his head enough to glare up at Andrew. “Why is this supposed to be a big deal?”

“Who fucking knows?” Andrew stroked his right thumb along the bare skin behind Neil’s left ear and watched as Neil’s eyes fluttered closed, took in the bits of pixie dust clinging to those long lashes and the hint of pink appearing on sharp cheekbones. “So what? Were you planning on finding yourself a pureblood to hook up with? Someone like Jean or Allison?”

Irritation flowed over the bond while Neil frowned yet he kept his eyes closed and didn’t pull away. “ _Enough_ with Jean, dammit, and why would I be interested in Allison?” He tilted his head once more until his face was almost tucked into the crook of Andrew’s neck. “I never… I was a kid when we ran from Baiting’s End, you know. There hadn’t been any talk of marriages or alliances for me, which makes sense now, but at the time I thought it was because I’d been too young. Then we spent so long running and a good bit of it in the mortal world.” He was quiet for a few seconds as his emotions took on a contemplative turn. “I couldn’t trust the few Fae we dealt with because they were _Fae_ , and the couple of human girls who appeared interested in me… well, they were human. There was no way I could let them get close enough to me, to risk them figuring out what was beneath my glamour even if I wondered what it was like to kiss a person, why everyone was so interested in it.” There was a flash of pain and fear. “No way my mother would let me do something like that.”

Now that was something Andrew would have preferred knowing when he still had the woman’s shade under his control, but no sense in wasting regret on it now. “So you don’t really care?” For once Andrew waited to hear the torc’s voice in his head after Neil’s response, while the idiot sighed as his fingers twisted in the soft material of his dark grey tunic.

“No. I never wanted to end up in a relationship like my parents and I never really cared about anyone.” Neil turned to look up at Andrew once more, his brow furrowed and teeth teasing at that damn full bottom lip. “I, ah, never thought I’d like anyone,” he admitted with a hint of color to his cheeks. “Like _that_.”

/ _Truth_./

‘Never thought’, Andrew focused on as he stroked his thumb along the idiot’s left ear, which increased the blush and made Neil shiver in reaction. “You don’t tend to think much at all, do you?”

That earned him a stuttered curse and even a huff from Nuit, but Neil didn’t pull away. Instead, he rubbed his right cheek against Andrew’s shoulder (there was going to be pixie dust all over his shirt) and let out a slow breath. “What about you?”

“Hmm?” Andrew frowned as he considered the question, for the moment distracted by how smooth and soft the skin was along the long sweep of Neil’s ear. “What, me and someone else?”

“Yuh-yes,” Neil stammered out as he shivered some more, his eyes drifting closed as pleasure washed into Andrew.

“No one wants me.” Well, other than some idiot shadow walker, it seemed.

/ _Truth_./

Not what Andrew needed to know just then when he was doing his best to not give in to the urge to cup Neil’s face and pull him in for a kiss; it was almost surreal, how comfortable Neil felt at the moment, how unafraid he was to be so close like this to Andrew, to rest against him and have Andrew’s hands on him. How surreal it was for Andrew to enjoy like this when he wasn’t going after something more specific, when he didn’t have Neil against a wall or the shadow walker’s hands pinned down.

He wasn’t going to do anything to mess this up. Time and fate would win out in the end, but until then Andrew would try his best for whatever good that would do him.

Disbelief washed into him at that answer and Neil shook his head, which caused soft curls to brush against Andrew’s jaw once more. “That can’t be true.”

Andrew scoffed at that as he combed his fingers through the unruly strands in an attempt to restore some order to them. “It’s like Kevin said, I’m an unknown, mostly nameless changeling.”

“But you’re powerful,” Neil argued as if that made everything all right. “And, uhm…,” embarrassment and a warm tide of want burned over the bond, “not… well, you’re nice to look at,” he said in a rush right before he tucked his face back into the crook of Andrew’s neck as if to hide it; his skin felt warm against Andrew’s.

/ _Truth_./

Good to know the torc thought he was attractive, too. Andrew tugged on the idiot’s hair again, which earned him a displeased grumble. “You’ve got odd tastes.”

“I’m… oh, you’re an asshole,” / _truth_ ,/ “and uhm, doesn’t someone at least…,” Neil broke into more mumbling in old Fae as his face heated up once again.

Ah, Roland. “That’s nothing formal,” Andrew settled on, unwilling to explain ‘fuck-buddies’ to someone like Neil. “And it’s over now.”

“Oh.” Neil lifted his head, his emotions contemplative once more and his gaze focused on Andrew’s chest. “Okay.” He seemed to think of something while Andrew once more cradled the back of his head, willing to give him the time to put those thoughts into words while he drank in the emotions flowing over their link and the way those feelings were echoed in Neil’s expression. “So if there’s no prior-“

Wherever Neil was going with things, he was interrupted by Jorea, Arrant and several other pixies bursting into the room through the balcony, which caused a flurry of dust to explode into the air. While Andrew coughed and had the spirits whirl around in an attempt to clear out the air, Jorea hissed out something in Pixish – he thought he caught something about ‘Brownies’ and knew it was bad when Neil’s emotions took a turn for the worse.

“It’s not good,” Neil explained to him when the pixie had fallen quiet and settled on his shoulder, right around when the front door opened to admit several Brownies eager to talk to Kevin. “From what she said, we need to hurry.”

Kevin was telling the Brownies to go find Wymack, so Andrew went over to his bed to grab all of the knives he’d brought along with him. “Can you take us to the moron by shadows?”

“Uhm….” Neil spoke in Pixish to Jorea, who answered back while gesturing about in the same language. “I can get us close to it and Jorea will lead us the rest of the way. She said there were weird wards on the room to try to keep people out and I’m not sure how that’ll affect you and Kevin.”

“Good enough.” Andrew looked up as Kevin stalked into the room. “Did they tell you about the wards?”

“Yes.” Kevin’s jaw was clenched and his eyes bright, a sign that he was already thinking of what he’d need to do to break through the damn things. “We using the shadows?”

“Of course, Neil has to pull his weight around here somehow.”

Neil sighed at that as he rubbed at his eyes and jumped down from the balcony’s railing. “I was so happy on the Dark Road, where I got to sit around and watch assholes be eaten immediately. So nice and happy,” he remarked out loud while Jorea made a quiet ‘hmph’ing sound and Ombré whined as she pawed at Neil’s leg.

“Amusing,” Andrew declared as he flicked at Neil’s left ear. “Wallow later, work now.” He held out his right hand, which Neil accepted after a moment; Kevin hesitated as well when he approached them and nodded when Andrew held out his left hand.

As soon as they were linked together and the wolves gathered around Neil, the idiot pulled them through the shadows to an unknown part of the knowe, one away from the main halls and rooms, from what Andrew could tell. He could already feel the spirits racing toward him… and he could feel the sense of death approaching, of people hovering close to the brink even before the pixies launched themselves into the air and a couple of Brownies waved to them from down the hallway.

“It’s over there,” he said as he motioned toward what should be a closed door – a door he had trouble focusing on, for some reason.

“Yes,” Neil agreed as he stepped closer to Andrew. “It’s subtle, but there’s a… ah, think of it as a ‘look-away’ spell cast down there to keep people from getting too close.”

“What? Wait, give me a second.” Kevin went over to the Brownies as he began to pull various stones and even a tiny vial or two out of his pouch, his thick brows drawn together in concentration and the scent of his magic growing heavy in the air.

“He’ll figure it out,” Andrew said as he fetched his cigarettes; once one was lit, he nodded to Neil. “You know the spell?”

Neil was quiet for a moment as he chewed on his bottom lip and buried his fingers in both Ombré’s and Nuit’s fur, as pain and resignation flowed into Andrew. “Some of my father’s people thought it was amusing, to cast it around the knowe when I was little. Especially when I had to be somewhere by a certain time. When my father was expecting me by a certain time.” The pain flared harsh and bright for a few seconds as Neil closed his eyes, as Andrew felt phantom sweeps of imaginary wounds along his body, memories of long ago burned into Neil’s mind and built up as scars along his flesh.

Mary Hatford Wesninski had so many things to answer for over the course of her life, but one of the worst – other than marrying Nathan Wesninski and not leaving the moment he raised a hand to her innocent son – was keeping the shadow wolves away from Neil until after her death. So much pain and horror could have been avoided if she hadn’t done that, if the creatures who were obviously her son’s protectors had been able to do their job right from the start.

That meant Neil could probably crack the spell, but Andrew allowed Kevin a bit of fun and didn’t call back the coward. It also meant that most likely, one of the Butcher’s people had cast them since it was a magic familiar to them.

It took Kevin a couple of minutes before he did undo the spell, a pleased smile on his face when the urge to look away vanished, and then his demeanor grew focused once more as he did away with the rest of the wards. During that time, Andrew blew smoke in Neil’s direction, which at first provoked a scowl but then made Neil relax and even smile a little as he drew in slow, even breaths; one day Andrew would ask why it was that the scent of tobacco seemed to help calm the idiot. One day.

“That’s the last of them,” Kevin called out. “It should be safe for us to go in now.” He glanced around. “Should we wait for Wymack? He should be here any moment.”

“No, someone in there doesn’t have much time,” Andrew told him, the sense of approaching death growing even stronger, of the soul preparing to leave the body. He hated being around people dying a lingering death, something that didn’t happen often in his world, because of the way it _felt_. Like a low level electric current running through his body, something that kept tingling and tingling and _tingling_ , yet in an unpleasant manner.

“Okay.” Kevin nudged the Brownies hovering around the door out of the way before he opened it, then coughed at the stench which escaped from the room; Neil made a retching sound but didn’t throw up while the mutts whined and shook their heads, Pilier and Ombré snorting several times.

For his part, Andrew was quick to light another cigarette in an effort to combat the odor – it was clear that Seth and whoever else in there with him hadn’t bothered to bathe in the last two days, among other things. Kevin gagged a little as he stepped inside, one of the Brownies quick to hand him a red cloth that was probably one of the handkerchiefs they wore around their necks or over their hair.

After looking at Neil’s washed out complexion, Andrew handed over the lit cigarette which Neil accepted with gratitude to hold up near his face and lit another one for himself. Only Jorea remained with the idiot, and Andrew couldn’t blame the rest of the pixies when they stepped into the room.

It was a store room – Neil had been right about the whole ‘find the goblin fruit’ thing, since it looked as if Seth and several other changelings had descended upon where the goblin fruit wine was stored, among other things. At one point they may have attempted to snack on some of the cheese stacked on the upper shelves, but it hadn’t agreed with them judging from the mess on the floor and themselves. That or the wine was much too strong.

That or there was something wrong with the wine.

Andrew was willing to bet it was the latter, considering the state of the pathetic beings collapsed on the floor in front of him, skeletal and ashen-skinned. Two of them were already unconscious, were probably those near-deaths he sensed, and the rest weren’t any better. All total there were eight changelings scattered about, in such bad shape that Andrew couldn’t really tell their bloodlines at all. He could barely recognize Seth, other than for the filthy orange tunic and the twisted grin on the man’s emaciated face.

“Cuh-come fa tha waine?” Seth drawled as he fumbled for the wine skin draped on his chest. “’s guud.”

“How is this possible?” Kevin asked, his handsome features twisted with horror. “I’ve never seen anything like this happen to Fae.”

“I have,” Neil admitted, his emotions bleak and face an impassive mask. “But only after you take the goblin fruit away from them.” When Kevin turned to look at him in shock, he dropped the cigarette and leaned to pick up one of the wine skins.

“Don’t,” Andrew told him, but Pilier was in his way so he couldn’t grab the idiot and stop him from doing something stupid – which was take a sip of the damn wine. Almost immediately after Neil had raised the skin to his lips, intense nausea and pain ripped through them both and the idiot was hunched over trying to throw up his entire digestive system – or so it seemed to Andrew.

Served the suicidal idiot right.

It was around then that the rest of the Foxes arrived; Andrew shoved Abby at Neil since he knew she couldn’t do anything for the changelings while a distraught Allison fell to her knees beside Seth despite the filth on the floor. Bee and Wymack caught Andrew’s gaze right after they took note of the horror scene in front of them, only to go tight-lipped and grim-faced when he shook his head.

Still, Bee, Aaron and Renee went to do what they could for the dying changelings while Wymack joined Allison by Seth. Meanwhile, Abby handed Neil a cloth so he could wipe clean his face. “Are you okay? Here, I have a tincture you should drink, it’ll settle your stomach,” she told the idiot while she tucked back his hair.

“What’s in it?” Andrew asked as he lightly grasped Neil’s left arm to help the idiot straighten up, and held on to it when Neil didn’t object and seemed unsteady on his feet.

Neil hesitated for a moment, his hand trembling as he accepted the small vial from Abby. “Marsh marigold, St. John’s Wort… and iron,” he confessed, the words slurred as if his mouth pained him.

Abby, Allison and Nicky cried out upon hearing that, while Wymack, Dan and Rheman, who had been standing in the doorway, took to cursing. Renee reached over to grab one of the wine skins and poured a little of its contents into her hand, only to bow her head as the dark red liquid dripped onto the floor, her slender body trembling for several seconds before she spoke.

“He’s right,” she said, her voice laced with a deadly tension which gave each word a too-sharp precision. “The iron is very fine and unnoticeable, at least at first, not with the potency of the goblin fruit. Neil’s very sensitive to it, though, so he’d notice right away, but a changeling wouldn’t. Combine it with the other ingredients which would weaken a full grown Fae let alone a changeling, and it’s lethal.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew snatched the vial from his idiot so he could remove the cap and then held it to Neil’s lips. “Drink this,” he ordered, furious that Neil had done something so stupid, furious that he could still feel the sting in his own head, in his own mouth, from that tiny bit of iron. For a moment Neil pressed his reddened lips together, and then he parted them while his still trembling hands raised to lightly grasp at Andrew’s while he drank down the tincture, his eyes closed and emotions apologetic.

Without saying a word, Abby handed over another one to Andrew so he could repeat the process, one that helped to take away the pain in Neil’s mouth, before she went over to Seth. “We need to get them somewhere else,” she told Wymack and a sobbing Allison who was fighting Seth for the wine skin. “Somewhere… somewhere comfortable.”

Somewhere they could die in peace, in other words, because there was no coming back from such potent goblin fruit. No coming back from ingesting iron.

Rheman glanced around the room with a grim expression on his face. “Emelia, Jorge and Arianna will want to know about their missing people. I’ll go tell them.” He glared at Wymack, the expression not aimed at the Daoine Sidhe. “The High Court is going to have to answer for this, for allowing something this reprehensible to happen to Fae who should have been under their protection in their knowe. I refuse to accept the answer that they’re _changelings_. They’re people and this an outright act of murder.”

/ _Truth_./

Nicky flinched at that while Dan appeared ready to start charging through the knowe at any moment to take on the High Court. As for Wymack, he was quiet for few seconds as he also looked around the room before his gaze settled back on the wreckage that was Seth, who was one of his own. “Later, James. Right now I just want to get these poor kids the hell out of here.”

“Of course, David. My people will help with that.” Rheman nodded as he stepped back out in the hallway.

Andrew looked at Neil when there was a tug on his sleeve. “What?” He frowned when Neill pulled him aside, closer to a shelf of wine. “What do you want?”

“There’s nothing we can do here, right?” Neil sounded a bit better even if his lips were still a little red.

Andrew nodded. “What stupid idea do you have now?”

Neil looked over at a changeling who cried out as a grimacing Matt gently pulled a wine bottle from her claw-like hands. “Let’s go talk to someone.” Judging from the sense of resolution, hate and fear coming from him just then, Andrew had an idea of who that ‘someone’ was.

He made sure that Kevin was over by Wymack and that some spirits would keep watch while he was gone before he nodded. “Let’s go have a chat with the Butcher.” After the last several minutes, it could only be an improvement to the day.

That time around, there wasn’t any hesitation in them reaching for each other’s hand, and the next thing Andrew knew, he was stepping into a strange set of rooms where the scent of hot metal and blood hung heavy in the air.

The scent of Nathan Wesninski’s magic. Andrew felt the lack of his spirits like the loss of a limb and hoped they caught up to him soon, the one drawback of using shadows to travel, but he still had the ability to cast spells, his weapons and the magic that Neil had given him, along with the torc. There was also the shadow wolves fanned around the two of them and Neil’s casting ability, and whatever magic Jorea could produce besides dusting people into a stupor.

Which was good, because the Butcher seemed to realize that company had dropped in unexpectedly, him and Lola and the other guy, Romero. The scent of magic grew stronger for a moment as the three Unseelie spun around, all of them with weapons in their hands, bladed weapons such as knives or small axes, until Nathan laughed out loud. The sound was sharp and cruel, just like his smile, and he motioned the Malcolm siblings to step back.

“Ah, Nathaniel, you came to pay me a visit. How pleasant.” He flipped the small ax which he held in his right hand in the air before returning it to the sheath on his right hip in a smooth motion. “Finally come to your senses?”

“That would be me asking the wolves to tear you to pieces, but I’m afraid eating a bastard like you would make them sick,” Neil replied in a surprisingly even tone which was in stark contrast to his own cruel smile and the hatred roiling inside of him.

Nathan laughed at that while Lola grinned and Romero stood there with an unnatural stillness, much like a snake ready to strike. “Ah Junior, I never once doubted that you were mine, not with that temper and nasty streak in you.” Those words made Neil recoil inwardly, but the idiot managed to hide his reaction. “Then you had to go and prove just how much you really do take after me.” Nathan held up his right hand, which took to glowing silver for a couple of seconds. “Maybe you’re a runner like your mother, but when it really matters, you’re a killer like me.”

That time Neil did react, a slight flinch which made Nathan’s grin sharpen and Lola cackle in delight while the mutts growled low in warning. “Yes, you’re a killer born and bred, a Folús Sidhe. It’s why you need a leash on you, boy, need someone to rein you in.” Nathan’s smile slipped away as his eyes narrowed – the same icy blue as Neil’s, but lacking any real emotion, so flat and cold and boring with their human ‘smallness’ in a face which Andrew found unattractive without those sharp angles and quicksilver emotions. “You need a master, which is why I gave you to Tetsuji.”

/ _Not-truth_./

Andrew didn’t need a damn piece of magical jewelry to tell him that. “No, you gave him away because you want to escape your own damn leash,” Andrew said as he tugged Neil close. “Don’t make this out to be about anything other than you, you prick.”

“Ah, the rat speaks up,” Nathan said while Lola muttered about changeling bastards and Romero’s eyes took on a dangerous gleam. “Someone’s growing a bit overconfident, aren’t they?”

“I think overconfident is leaving your wards all over a room in which a bunch of changelings are slowly dying inside of, but what do I know?” Andrew reached up with his left hand to run it over the exposed torc since he’d never changed his shirt, too busy dealing with Stuart and Neil and everything else the day had thrown at him. “Feel like talking?”

Nathan smiled once more. “My people were just practicing their magic. How could they know what was inside that room?”

/ _Not-truth_./

“It was goblin fruit wine from Baiting’s End,” Neil said, his voice tired even as he met his father’s eyes. “I drank it enough when I lived there to know what it tastes like, even with what you put in it to kill those poor people. It always grows so potent in the knowe.”

It was quiet in the room for several seconds before Nathan laughed. “We supplied some to the knowe as a gesture of goodwill, how are we to be responsible for what happens to it after that?”

/ _Not-truth_./

Andrew looked at the man in disgust. “An answer for everything, right? What would happen if I asked for the truth?” While he spoke, the spirits swarmed into the room.

That seemed to wipe away Nathan’s good mood. “And how do you think people are going to react to a son of a mostly human whore who tossed you aside like the trash you are going around throwing the one bit of power you have through a freak chance of fate, hmm?” Nathan scoffed as Neil’s ‘temper’ flared as always upon Andrew being insulted for some damn reason, when Andrew was used to it, used to having Tilda and his past thrown in his face.

“He’s worth a thousand of you, of all three of you assholes,” Neil said, his eyes bright with anger and cheeks flushed, the wolves a growling black menace in front of him and Jorea hissing on his shoulder.

Nathan sneered at his son. “Did you believe him when he danced with you? Oh Junior, maybe you’ve got too much of your bitch mother in you after all, so eager to believe in cheap gestures like that. He’s just-“ The prick shut up as spirits shoved him backward.

“I’m tired of hearing you talk,” Andrew said while Neil hunched over next to him, while Ombré and Danseur rubbed against the idiot’s legs.

“What, does the truth hurt?” Lola taunted as she bared her sharp teeth.

Neil shook his head. “Anything to do with my father hurts, I’m used to it. I’m also used to the way he never tells the truth.” He gave his father a cold look as he rested his hands on the wolves’ backs. “Don’t ever try to make Andrew to be out like you. He’s not a heartless monster.”

“Which is why he’s going to lose that fancy torc and watch you kneel in front of Moriyama,” Nathan taunted as he smirked at Andrew. “That’s before you lose your head as well.”

Andrew gave the prick a bored look. “We’ll see who loses their head in the end, won’t we?” He didn’t intend it to be him, not when he had so much incentive to see these pricks before him dead, to reanimate their corpses so he could prove to Neil that they were truly dead and under his power, were no more the demons who had tormented his friend for so long.

If it wouldn’t start a war which would involve the Foxhole Court and risk the lives of his family, he’d have the spirits and his magic tear into the bastards then and there, but despite all the shit that the High Court had pulled over the last couple of days, his hands were tied in that regard.

Nathan scoffed as he ran his fingers over the sheathed ax. “You’ll watch me put an end to this one, too, Nathaniel. Maybe those mutts of yours will provide a better challenge than this half-pint rat of yours.”

“No,” Neil told the man as his magic thrummed through the room, so heady and powerful. “You won’t touch the wolves and you won’t touch Andrew, _ever_.” The silver glow emanated from both his hands as the gauntlet grew to its full size, as he gazed at his father with open hatred. “I’m not allowing you to take anyone away from me ever again.”

“You can try, Ju-“

“ _No_ ,” Neil repeated as the sense of his magic grew oppressive. “I’m done running from you.”

/ _Truth_./

“That just makes it easier to find you,” Nathan said, but his deep voice lacked its usual cockiness and his grin was flat as he looked down upon his son.

Andrew spoke up before the whole father/son conversation could get any more twisted. “One last thing before we go – _were you obeying orders to poison the goblin fruit wine_?” He nodded in satisfaction when Nathan’s jaw clamped shut hard enough to produce an audible sound and for blood to seep past his pressed-together lips in an attempt for him to fight the compulsion. As he struggled to contain the ‘yes’, Andrew nudged Neil to indicate that they could leave.

Once they were back in their suite, Neil took to pacing while the mutts curled up out of the way and watched him; his emotions were dark and turbulent, so Andrew let him be while he poured himself some whiskey. After a few minutes of Neil’s self-castigation, he sighed and set the empty glass aside. “What idiocy are you thinking about now?”

Neil whirled around and blinked at him while Jorea chittered away about something, probably almost being knocked off of Neil’s shoulder. “About Seth.” The idiot motioned toward the other rooms. “You heard my father, he basically admitted to doing everything on Tetsuji’s orders. Tell me you don’t think that Seth and those others aren’t dying right now because of me,” he said as his guilt spiked inside of Andrew.

It was even worse than Andrew thought, the heights to which Neil’s stupidity could go. “Listen to me,” he told the idiot as he stepped forward and, after waiting for Neil’s approval, gently cupped his face between his hands. Jorea jabbed at the back of Andrew’s left hand with her bony fingers for the gesture, which he ignored after sparing her a flat look for a moment. “I’m only going to say this once, so do yourself a favor and concentrate.”

“You’re an asshole,” Neil muttered. “I’m not stupid.”

“That’s not you concentrating,” Andrew pointed out as he gave Neil’s head a quick squeeze until Neil glared at him. “Seth isn’t your fault, this-“

“It wouldn’t have happened-“

“Shut up,” Andrew told him as he pulled Neil in close enough so their foreheads touched. “You’re not listening.”

Neil’s expression crumbled as he took a deep breath. “He was here because of me. If I hadn’t come to the Foxhole Court, if I hadn’t agreed to stay, none of this would have happened.”

Andrew clicked his tongue as he gave a slight tug to the hair trapped between his fingers. “ _Listen_ , dammit.” When Neil blinked at him, he softened his tone. “Seth was living on borrowed time in the first place, considering his addiction to goblin fruit. Everyone in the knowe knew it. And you didn’t bring the Moriyamas down on us, Kevin did if you want to get technical about it. Or Wymack for giving him shelter in the first place, or me for telling the coward I’d keep him safe from those bastards. We were on a collision course with them long before you showed up.”

“But I did show up,” Neil murmured as he closed his eyes, exhaustion washing through them both.

“And if you hadn’t?” Andrew’s hands moved as if by their own volition to better cup Neil’s head, to weave his fingers through those impossible, bright strands and stroke his thumbs along sharp cheekbones. “Then Tetsuji would have broken you and sent you to drag Kevin back to Evermore, and I’m willing to bet that more than Seth would be dead, then.”

/ _Truth_./

Neil shivered at that, but gave up trying to argue at last. “You said you’re done running, which means taking a stand,” Andrew continued. “You can’t buckle under each strike against you.”

“I can take the hits to me, I’m used to them.” Neil opened his eyes as concern and fear flowed into Andrew. “I’m not used to others paying the price.”

“It won’t happen again,” Andrew promised. “I won’t let it happen again.” Seth had been an easily exploited weakness, something Andrew wouldn’t allow anymore, not when the people he’d swore to protect were at risk.

“How can you say that with any amount of certainty?” Neil’s brows drew together as he gave his head a slight shake. “Perhaps… maybe Ichirou won’t-“

“ _No_.” Anger flared to life inside of Andrew at the thought of Neil giving in, of him going to Ichirou Moriyama. “Do you doubt me that much?”

Neil chewed on his bottom lip for a couple of seconds as emotions warred inside of him – uncertainty, fear, hope and weariness – before he answered. “I don’t want more people dying for or because of me.”

/ _Truth_./

“They won’t,” Andrew assured him. “Just stop being an idiot and listen to me.” That made Jorea hiss out something in Pixish, but Neil smiled, the expression slight yet earnest.

“I don’t know, if I smartened up then I might have the wolves do something about you one of these days,” Neil teased even as the torc murmured ‘ _not-truth_ ’ in Andrew’s head, and raised his right hand to Andrew’s cheek. When Andrew nodded, Neil brushed his fingers along Andrew’s face. “Hmm, it’s mostly smooth now.”

“Give it a few more hours, it takes time to grow back in,” Andrew sighed, befuddled by Neil’s fascination with his stubble. He almost asked if Neil hadn’t experienced anything like it before, but all of the knights he’d seen so far sworn to the Moriyamas had been purebloods, and Neil had confessed to not doing anything with humans. Had confessed to not wanting to do ‘anything’ with anyone before, which made what Riko had put him through at Evermore even more terrible, yet he stood there with Andrew’s hands on him while his own emotions were a mixture of curiosity, happiness, comfort and a hint of pleasure.

“So odd,” Neil said as he pulled back a little to better look at Andrew. “But it’s better than scales or moss, I suppose.”

“I don’t think people with _these_ ,” Andrew ran his fingers along Neil’s ears, “should be judging.”

Neil shivered in reaction and the pleasure grew sharper – grew sharp enough that Andrew let go of the idiot and took a step back while Jorea scolded him and Neil wiped a hand over his now flushed face. “Come on, let’s go find the others,” Andrew said as he went over to his bags to grab a new shirt.

“Okay.” Neil’s interest spiked as Andrew changed, along with a hint of embarrassment, which told Andrew that whatever was going on between them, it wasn’t one-sided on his part. It might be new to Neil and he had little clue on what was going on, but he seemed willing to give in somewhat to the emotions pushing him toward Andrew as long as nothing happened too fast.

Well, they were Fae, they had more than enough time, didn’t they? Time to see if this was real, whatever it was between them, if Andrew could count on Neil and Neil trust Andrew.

Reunited with his spirits once again, Andrew had a few of them tag along as they left the suite and went over to Wymack’s, which was bustling with Brownies running back and forth to fetch stuff for Abby and Aaron while Wymack stood off to the side talking to Rheman, Knox, Dan and Kevin. Andrew sent a spirit over to eavesdrop on them while he and Neil approached the bed where Abby, Aaron, Allison and Renee were huddled around Seth’s now clean form with an apprehensive Neil tagging along.

“Try to drink this,” Abby urged Seth as she held a cup up to his cracked lips, some sort of potion that wouldn’t do the changeling any good from what Andrew was sensing, that awful tingling back, that hovering between life and death. From what he could tell, withdrawing the goblin fruit wine was the last straw for the changeling’s overtaxed system, had tipped things in favor of all the iron in Seth’s body among everything else.

Andrew had always thought that Seth was an imbecile, that he couldn’t appreciate everything that he had going for him – Allison, Wymack, the Foxhole Court… all things that Andrew never had in his life; a lover who wanted him for what he was, flaws and all, someone to support him no matter what, a knowe who took him in and backed him up. Yes, Seth had a fucked up youth, had parents who had scorned and abused him, but that was much of the Foxes, really. It certainly was Andrew and Aaron and Nicky, it definitely was Neil. It was Dan in the way her mother had neglected her and left her to struggle on her own. It was Matt in the offhand disregard of his father, it was the epitome of Renee, in what Andrew had learned in the last few weeks.

In other words, Seth had no reason to seek out goblin fruit when he’d found a safe haven, had found a place to take him in and offer him a future. To seek out something that would deprive him of that future when he had so much to live for, to not try to find some way to wean himself off of that fruit when Aaron had left behind his own addiction and refused to look at anything to deal with the damn stuff.

Even with a lack of magic, Seth could have had so much ahead of him, and he’d thrown it away. So Andrew couldn’t find any sympathy or pity or remorse or _anything_ in him for the man, nothing but disgust at how Seth had wasted his life and made Neil feel guilt over something that wasn’t really his fault, when this whole thing was aimed at making Neil hurt in the first place, was aimed at driving a wedge between Neil and the Foxhole Court.

Andrew wasn’t going to allow that to happen, dammit. Not when Seth had his chances and had squandered them, had allowed his own insecurities and weaknesses to drag him down. Hadn’t been able to see what he had in front of him, all of the possibilities and strengths.

Maybe Andrew could be bitter as fuck sometimes, / _not-truth_ /, but he wasn’t going to allow something like a fucking fruit take him down. He wouldn’t allow something tailored to make _changelings_ weak take him down. And he wouldn’t give up while he still had responsibilities.

Aaron. Kevin. Neil. Nicky. The Foxhole Court.

He jolted back from his thoughts when the apprehension continued to build in Neil, enough so that he reached out to wrap his hand around Neil’s nape. “What did I tell you,” he murmured for the idiot’s benefit, and that time Jorea didn’t do anything but snort in what sounded to be agreement.

Neil’s shoulders sagged as if giving up some heavy burden as the emotion eased and he gave Andrew a thin smile, while Renee broke from the group around the bed to approach them. “It’s not good,” she told them in a quiet voice. “At first there was talk about taking him back to the knowe, but he won’t last that long.” Over by the bed, Allison could be heard cursing out Seth, her voice thick with tears.

“No, it never lasts long once you take the goblin fruit away from them, and I imagine the iron and everything else makes it worse.” Neil closed his eyes for a moment as pain and horror made his lean body shudder, and Andrew could only imagine what those years at Baiting’s End had been like for him, what his father had made him endure. “It’s best if… well, if there’s any way to make it end quickly, I suggest you do it,” he told Renee in a quiet voice.

Andrew supposed if it had been anyone else, had been Abby or Wymack and possibly even Bee that Neil’s suggestion would be greeted with horror or pause, but Renee stared into his unusual eyes for a few seconds then nodded. “You said you’ve seen the effects of goblin fruit. I’ve seen it somewhat myself, seen what happens when they get too addicted. That’s usually when I stepped in.” She lowered her eyes and took to rubbing her forearms as if seeking the presence of something – Andrew wondered if she was looking for knives, much like he kept his own strapped to his arms. “The little I’ve seen, it’s one of the worst deaths possible, goblin fruit withdrawal.”

Neil was quiet for a moment as grief and anguish washed through Andrew. “Iron poisoning is just as bad if not worse,” he admitted in a hoarse voice, then gave a weak laugh. “But that’s a moot point here now, right?” He hung his head as Jorea stroked his right cheek and the mutts edged around him in an effort to offer some sort of comfort. “It’s terrible, seeing them die that way – either way. I’ve seen it too much.” His eyelashes pressed tightly together as if in hopes of shutting out the images, but Andrew knew that all too often in cases like that, they were already burned into one’s mind. “If you can end the pain early, you should.” For some reason, that caused a sharp spike of guilt/pain/agony.

Anger simmered inside of Andrew at the thought of a young Neil being subjugated to such things, to seeing so much pain – and judging from the darkness in Renee’s eyes, she felt the same. They shared a look between them for a moment before Renee gave a slight nod. “He’s fading already, correct?” That question was posed to Andrew.

“Yes, it won’t be long now,” he told her.

“I thought so, but it’s best to be certain of these things. Abby has already warned Allison, but….” Renee’s lips pressed closed as she glanced over at the bed where the Valkyrie continued to berate Seth, her voice and expression hoarse with grief. “Sooner is better,” Renee said before she walked away.

Neil frowned at that and when he went to follow her, Andrew grabbed him by the arm. “Is she-“

“She’s doing what needs to be done,” Andrew said in a hushed voice. He waited to see how Neil’s reaction to that would be, and somehow wasn’t surprised when resignation flowed over their bond, when Neil merely bowed his head and let out a slow breath.

“Yes,” was all Neil replied as grief/pain/agreement crossed over their bond.

Andrew narrowed his eyes as he gazed at his friend. “You’ve done something like this before,” he guessed.

The pain and grief intensified as Neil closed those unusual eyes of his. “ _Yes_.”

/ _Truth_./

There wasn’t much Andrew could say just then, not when they were in a roomful of people, not when Neil hurt so damn much, but he reached out to brush the back of his knuckles against Neil’s right cheek. Somehow, that made Neil open his eyes and give him a weak smile, to make gratefulness and peace flow over the bond between them.

They both watched as Renee approached the bed, as she reached out to place a hand on Seth’s right leg, as the Cait Sidhe changeling continued to argue with Allison for another minute or two before his words grew more slurred, as his eyelids began to droop and then shut, as his breathing became labored. Abby and Aaron exchanged a look between them while Bee placed her hand on Seth’s forehead before stepping aside, and while Allison cursed Seth out, the healers slowly backed away.

It was a more peaceful death than the changeling deserved, all in all, whatever Renee gave him. Slowing down his heart or blocking the flow of blood to his brain, all the things a naiad could do to a person if they put their mind and magic to it, a way to stop the pain that withdrawal and iron poisoning caused a Fae. Perhaps Renee would feel guilty later, but Andrew thought that she did Seth a blessing in the end. Despite the initial pain that Renee’s actions had caused Neil, he knew the idiot felt the same.

When it became apparent that Seth breathed no more, Allison paused for a moment and then her sorrow turned into rage, turned into her smashing her fists into his still chest as she ranted at him for being an idiot, for being so stupid as to giving in to the goblin fruit, for leaving her, for something else that was incomprehensible in her grief as Bee rushed over to wrap her arms around the Valkyrie to offer her support as Renee stood off to the side with a look of remorse on her face.

Meanwhile, Wymack gazed at Seth’s body for a few seconds with grief twisting his rough features before he stood up; in another few minutes everyone would be forced from the changeling’s body as Fae magic took it away from them, rendered it into nothing since nothing Fae seemed to last once it was gone from the living, nothing to be left behind to be used as evidence against the race.

“We’re leaving this place,” Wymack declared in a rough voice. “But I want it known what’s happened here, that changelings have died because of the High Court’s negligence.” That seemed to be directed toward Rheman, one of the few who were unaffected by the whole goblin fruit thing since his people hadn’t come to the knowe until last night.

James Rheman bowed his head to Wymack. “It’ll be done,” the Tuatha de Danann swore, his green eyes shining with determination. “I’ll spread the word through the other knowes about this, how at least some of the High Court has sided with the Moriyamas and allowed this to happen.” He glanced at Neil for a moment. “Of how they’re more concerned about the power they can grab for themselves than about governing in a fair manner as they should.”

“All I care about is how they let their own die because they were too prejudiced and too power-hungry to care,” Wymack swore as he strode out of the bedroom. “If they’re not going to do what they’re supposed to do, then we don’t need them.”

“Damn right we don’t need them,” Dan agreed. “No reason for them or the regional courts to have any control over us if they’re not impartial or remotely caring about looking out for _all_ of us.”

That sounded a good bit like treason to Andrew, but since he’d never understood why the Fae kowtowed to a regional Court or king/queen in the first place, he wasn’t going to argue.

“But….” Neil gaped at them – Neil, the person who probably had the most traditional thinking out of all of them, thanks to all of his years removed from reality while on the Dark Road. “They’re the _High Court_.”

“That doesn’t mean the damn thing is infallible,” Andrew argued. “Do you want to be their pet, hmm?” He stared at the idiot until Neil glared at him.

“No, it’s just… they’re supposed to be the power, now that the Three have left.”

Wymack scoffed at that. “Maybe a few decades ago, but people are starting to get restless with a bunch of old farts declaring things based on the fact the fact that they’re supposedly the oldest and the wisest,” he explained to Neil. “The past few days aren’t going to help any, not when they make it clear that the High Court is susceptible to greed and power like everyone else.”

As if sensing Neil’s confusion over that, Matt stepped in. “Look, a lot of things changed after the wars – uhm, the human wars. The world wars,” he tried to explain. “Maybe it’s a bit different in the other continents where there’s kings and queens, but it’s a bit looser here in North America where we never established a sovereignty, where we just have the High Court and the regional courts. People have wondered why there should even be that much power in others’ hands when the knowes seem to be able to manage on their own, when the world is changing so much in the last few decades.”

Neil shook his head as if confused. “But the Fae don’t change, not really.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Matt agreed. “The changes were forced upon us when the Three left.” He gave a pointed look to the gauntlet on Neil’s right wrist. “Maybe things will go back to the way they always were, now.”

The insinuation behind that made Neil stiffen as Andrew shoved his way in front of the idiot, to shield Neil from everyone’s appraising looks. “Deal with the mess here and then let us know when we’re returning to the Foxhole Court,” he told them while looking over at Kevin. “You done here?”

“Yeah,” Kevin admitted after casting a quick look at Knox.

“We’ll be ready to leave soon,” Wymack agreed. “I want everyone to pack up soon, and then we’ll meet up in the main courtyard.” He nodded at Rheman before he looked back at the bedroom – at Seth’s corpse.

Andrew tugged at Neil’s sleeve as Abby, Allison and Bee were forced out of the bedroom. “Come on, let’s go.”

Neil nodded as relief washed into Andrew. “Okay.” His shoulders hunched forward as they made for the door. “The sooner we get back to the knowe, the better.”

Andrew agreed with that, but somehow didn’t think that things would be so simple; not when it seemed that forces would soon be tearing the High Court apart, when people would be coming after the Foxhole Court for what it harbored.

It wasn’t as if Andrew had expected a quiet life, but fuck him if he expected the chaos that a certain shadow walker would bring into it. Yet as he contemplated centuries of drug-filled highs and lows, of dealing with Renee’s blissful smiles and Aaron’s pathetic attempts at dating and… okay, chaos was semi-good. At least Neil had an amazing ass to look upon and accepted smacks to the head when he was being an idiot (which was most of the time).

Andrew had always accepted the fact that his life was fucked up, he didn’t need it to be explicitly spelled out.

Then again, he could handle ‘fucked up’ as he followed behind Neil back to their suite and gazed upon those long, lean thighs and that amazing ass – at least until Jorea twisted around to blow pixie dust into his face.

There had to be a way to do away with the winged pests. And mutts who ‘smiled’ at him when he stumbled because of all the damned dust he’d just inhaled before blocking his view of a certain idiot’s ass. Andrew frowned as he debated all of the annoyances he suffered thanks to the ‘chaos’ which had been inflicted upon him – he’d put up with them until now, but he’d figure out a way to deal with them easily enough.

/ _Not-truth_./

He really did need to melt the damn torc.

*******

Neil’s bag was packed and he was ready to go as soon as Andrew and Kevin told him the rest of the Foxes were prepared to leave the High Court. As much as the Dark Road was his true home, he was anxious to return to the Foxhole Court, to the sanctuary he’d found in the knowe’s gardens, the spots he’d made his own beneath the ancient willow tree and up in the oak tree and – the place had become a safe refuge of sorts. It was infinitely better than the High Court.

He sat out on the balcony railing once more and talked to Jorea while he waited. “ _One of the pixies will follow Jean to Evermore_?” He wanted to make sure that his ‘friend’ was safe, that the Leannan Sidhe didn’t get into too much trouble for not having Neil swear to Tetsuji last night or anything else. There was little Neil could do while Jean’s oath to the Moriyamas was in effect, but he could look after Jean in whatever manner possible, much like the man tried to do for him.

“Yes,” Jorea assured him. “ _Finnius will follow the disdainful one home_.” She flapped her wings back and forth as she hovered in front of Neil before she settled on his shoulder. “ _He would make a much better mate than the short, arrogant one_.”

No. _No._ Neil groaned as he rubbed at his left ear for a moment, until the gesture reminded him too much of Andrew just then and he blushed. “ _Jean’s not- that is- **no**_ ,” he told Jorea. “ _Everyone needs to stop thinking there’s anything going on between me and Jean, dammit_!” Why? What made people think like that? Neil didn’t understand the logic at all.

Jorea sniffed as she tugged on a lock of Neil’s hair. “ _He looks better with you, is nice and tall_.”

This, from a _pixie_ , Neil thought with growing disbelief. “ _I honestly don’t know what to_ -“ he blinked when Andrew stepped out onto the balcony and Nuit barked in excitement. “Yes?”

“Unless you want to stay behind and let the High Court order you around, we’re leaving,” Andrew informed him, his demeanor as bored as always but a spark of curiosity lurking behind his emotions – curiosity and something suspiciously like enjoyment when Neil smiled at him as he jumped down from the railing. “You look like an idiot.”

“What a coincidence, I hear I happen to be one, too,” Neil said as he and the wolves rushed into the bedroom to gather his bag so they could leave; meanwhile, Jorea muttered about ‘short, rude bastards’.

Kevin was busy near the door leading to the hallway thanking the Brownies who had helped them during their stay; the small Fae appeared on the verge of tears to see him with his bags slung over his left shoulder, ready to leave. It took Andrew clearing his throat several times before they finally allowed Kevin to open the door so the three of them (and the wolves) could step out into the hallway and join the rest of the Foxes (Neil suspected that the Foxhole Court would soon be gaining some new household staff in the near future).

Everyone in the hallway appeared either angry or upset, which was understandable considering that they were leaving after the death of one of their own; Neil assumed that Wymack had ensured that Seth’s body had truly ‘disappeared’ since they were in the Fae realm (supposedly taken away by the night haunts) and his belongings disposed of properly so no one could use them against his family and loved ones if so inclined, and felt a bit of envy that Seth had so many people to look after him upon his death when all Neil’s mother had was him in the mortal world.

Then he took in the stark grief evident on Allison’s face, the sorrow on Abby’s and Betsy’s, the anger on Wymack’s and Dan’s and Matt’s, the simmering tension in Renee and knew that the Foxes hadn’t escaped unscathed. Even Kevin, Aaron and Nicky bore some marks, if not as deeply as the others.

“Let’s go,” Wymack declared once they were all together, his voice gruffer than usual and motions jerky; the barely banked anger in the large Fae put Neil on edge, made him want to slip away into the shadows before those calloused hands with the thick fingers reached out to knock him to the ground, to bruise and break him, but the wolves were around him and Andrew was at his side so he stayed. Yet perhaps something showed on his face, or it was the way Andrew’s right hand took its now familiar spot on the nape of Neil’s neck, the way the wolves gave a faint warning growl which made Wymack glance his way and slow down.

“I’m dealing with the High Court and then we’re going home,” he told Neil in a softer voice than before. “It’s okay.”

Somehow, Neil didn’t think so, but he was sworn to the man so he followed – he also wanted to leave the High Court with a desperation he could taste, wanted to curl up beneath the willow tree with the wolves tucked around him while Jorea and Arrant and Myriss and the other pixies danced about in the air while laughing about the triggered hexes.

Matt gave him an encouraging smile as they left the suite, Allison tucked between Abby and Renee but managing a more or less blank face once they were out in the hall, a proud Valkyrie to the core. As soon as they left the quiet hallway of their suites, there were Fae standing about as if waiting for them, Seelie and Unseelie, their gazes intent upon Neil, Andrew and Kevin as they walked past.

Once again Neil’s skin took to itching, his magic pulling at him to slip into the shadows, to slip away. It ate at him to be so noticeable, to have so much attention on him when for so long he’d survived by deflecting it, and he could hear his mother’s voice in his head screaming at him for making a mistake, for not running away, for being so stupid. Yet instead of her fists hitting him there was Andrew’s warm, comforting hand on his neck and his deep voice murmuring in Neil’s left ear, “no more running, remember? Bare your teeth like a good little fox and stand your ground for once.”

Neil called him a bastard in old Fae yet he relaxed just a little, even if he couldn’t manage a smile, while on his other side Kevin walked along as if all of this was nothing.

The Tuatha de Danann with the dark brown hair, Rheman, joined them after a few minutes, the younger Fae with the blond hair and annoying bright smile at his side. “If you haven’t guessed it yet, there’s going to be an audience for this,” he warned Wymack. “People are both furious about what’s happened here the last few days and drawn to anything involving those three of yours.” He motioned to Neil, Andrew and Kevin while he spoke, his gaze lingering on them for a couple of seconds.

“I knew this wasn’t going to go down quietly,” Wymack answered as he motioned for them to continue onward. For his part, Neil didn’t understand why they couldn’t just teleport back to the Foxhole Court knowe and consider everything finished for once.

He twitched every time someone mentioned ‘Maeb’ and ‘Maeb’s heir’, and had to fight the urge to shove his right arm behind his back. The feel of Andrew’s mocking amusement over the bond didn’t help, either.

Several of the members of the High Court were waiting for them in the courtyard where they’d arrived the other day – the Tuatha de Danann, the Merrow, the Bokwus among others. It was the Bokwus who stepped forward that time, his expression made even more grim due to the dark paint on his face. “There have been rumors-“

“They aren’t fucking rumors,” Wymack cut him off, his voice loud and seething with fury. “Rumors don’t cost me the life of a sworn vassal, dammit! A vassal who should have been safe here, whom I brought because you should have ensured that everyone in your knowe was under the same protection, yet he and several others died due to iron-laced goblin fruit wine.” There was an outcry at that announcement; Neil noticed a couple of stone-faced Fae standing near Rheman and wondered if they were the Fae lords whom were responsible for the changelings who had died along with Seth. “Five of them never had goblin fruit before coming here so it’s all on you.”

The Bokwus shook his head. “We are looking into the matter, we can’t-“

One of the lords, a Leannan Sidhe with short black hair and dressed in light blue pants with a darker blue jacket, stepped forward, her face marked with grief and anger. “I lost three of my people today, _three_ ,” she stressed. “Loyal to me for over a century, who trusted me, and this is what happens when I thought they would be safe? Your word means _nothing_ to me,” she spat at the Fae. “Not when my people die because of it.”

He gave her a cold look at that. “We are the High Court and they were just changelings.” When the scent of menthol and thyme grew strong as the Leannan Sidhe glared at him, as the gathered crowd took to booing at his remark, he seemed to realize his mistake and shook his head. “I did not mean those words like that.”

“I think you did,” Wymack said as he eyed the Fae with disgust. “I’m pretty sure you did, in fact. Everyone knows that you don’t hold the changelings in high regard, but to be that callous about them? It’s a sign of how far you’ve drifted from what your true goal is of providing guidance for the Fae and I’m not putting up with your shit anymore, not when it puts my people at risk.” He shook his head while the assembled Fae cheered in support of him. “Nor will I listen to assholes who make judgements which favor themselves.”

While Wymack tore into the High Court, Neil noticed that the Moriyamas had entered the courtyard, his father and the Malcolms a quiet, ominous presence behind the entourage dressed in black and red. Riko openly glared at everyone while his uncle was more composed, and leading everyone was an impassive-faced Ichirou. Neil ignored the Bokwus’ stuttering attempt to argue with Wymack when Ichirou waved him over.

Of course Andrew noticed that and shook his head. “Don’t be an idiot,” the necromancer warned.

“He can’t do anything in front of everyone,” Neil said as he slipped away with the shadow wolves around him, their ears slicked back and teeth bared in evident warning to Ichirou; he could feel a spirit following as well, Andrew’s attempt to protect from a distance. “Yes, Lord Moriyama?”

“I see you know some manners despite what my uncle has said,” Ichirou said, to which Neil didn’t reply; he’d been taught the proper forms of address as a child and the logic of not unduly antagonizing another Fae without sufficient cause. Not that he always was good at following those lessons, but they stuck now and then. “Before you go, I want you to know this – there will come a time when only I can give you what you need.”

“All right.” Neil gave him a blank look for a few seconds before he sighed. “A few heads in a bag?” he took a guess, but when all Ichirou did was give him an even gaze in return, he shrugged and walked away, refusing to feel disturbed by the encounter.

As soon as he returned to Andrew’s side, he received a flick to his left ear. “Do you insist on making my life difficult?”

“Do you want me to really try?” Neil asked, and winced when his ear was flicked in earnest, which made Jorea hiss in outrage at Andrew and him miss out on Wymack insulting the High Court before motioning for Kevin to start the teleport spell.

As the Foxes gathered together so they could return to their knowe, Rheman stepped forward to also announce that he and his knowe were no longer following such a corrupt court. Neil felt something cold settle in his chest at the implication of the High Court losing so much power and influence after being in control for so long.

Then Kevin’s spell took over and they were back at the Foxhole Court, were returned to the gardens where Neil felt comfortable for the first time in days. The shadow wolves let out excited barks and went off running while Jorea and the pixies flew off.

Wymack held up his hands to keep everyone from leaving right away. “Look, a lot has happened and we need to deal with it, but we will. For right now, stay in the knowe, I’m not going to allow anyone to leave just yet without good cause.”

Aaron reacted immediately to the news. “But we’ve already been on lockdown for how long now, this is getting ridiculous! How long are you going to punish the rest of us because of one person?”

“It’s not because of one person,” Wymack shot back. “There’s things going on and-“

“All of this shit started when that _freak_ arrived and you know it.” Aaron glared at Neil before throwing his hands into the air. “Lock him up if you must but don’t take it out on us.”

“That’s not how we do things here and you know it! Come back here, you little runt!” Wymack called out when Aaron stalked off while shaking his head with an angry Andrew in tow.

“And everything’s back to normal,” Matt drawled. “Welcome home.” He gave Neil a big grin which slowly faded when all Neil did was give him a blank look back, especially as Abby and Betsy were ushering a quiet Allison into the main building as a pensive Renee stood by and watched. “Hey, Aaron didn’t mean anything by that.”

“Yeah,” Nicky agreed, “he’s just upset that he can’t go out on any, uhm, well, that he can’t go out into the mortal world.” He gave a nervous laugh before nodding toward the building where everyone else was headed. “I’m going to make sure that those two aren’t trying to kill each other or something.”

“Really?” Neil glanced in the direction they’d gone off in as he rubbed at the gauntlet. “Why would they do that?” He didn’t understand Andrew’s relationship with his brother and just remembered some mention about Aaron dating humans.

“It’s complicated,” Nicky called back as he hurried away, and Dan nodded in agreement as she and Matt followed. That left Neil with Kevin and Renee, who didn’t seem in any hurry to leave.

Kevin noticed Neil running his fingers along the gauntlet and took to tugging on his sword belt. “So, we’re back now. How soon do you think Andrew will agree to going to the Dark Road?”

A wave of longing hit Neil upon mention of the shadow realm, enough that he tried to slip back to it for a moment only to be blocked by the damn geas. “I don’t know,” he admitted with a growing sense of frustration. “It’s up to Andrew.”

“And he keeps saying no, dammit.” Kevin frowned at that for a couple of seconds before he gave Neil an appraising look. “At least when _I_ ask. So why don’t you try?” 

Neil shook his head upon hearing that suggestion. “He knows I want to go there, so why do you think that’ll work?”

“Because he seems to care about making you happy.”

“Probably because he can feel it when I’m not,” Neil argued. “It’s not so much for my benefit.”

Kevin looked at him as if he was stupid. “I need to find that ring, so don’t wait too long to ask him,” was all he said before he left as well, leaving Neil alone with Renee. When he looked at her in confusion, she gave him a small smile and shrugged.

“Andrew doesn’t seem to like it when you’re unhappy, I agree with that.” She fell in step beside him as he made his way toward the willow tree.

“I can understand that, it doesn’t feel good when he’s upset, either.” Such as now, with what Neil assumed were the necromancer’s feelings for his brother.

“So you’re adjusting to the bond?” Renee gazed at him with such intent that it was clear she expected some sort of answer. “I’m sorry that it was forced upon you but it appears that it’s not such a bad thing, no?”

Neil gave the question some thought for about a minute. “I want to be free, I want to be able to return to the Dark Road whenever I want for however long I want. But… Andrew is a good person and I’m not sure I’d understand him half as well as I do without the bond.” Then he grimaced a little. “Which isn’t saying much, really, as he still confuses me.” Yet Neil could sense the fierce need to protect inside of Andrew, the moments of amusement and peace and rare contentment which the changeling never allowed to show beyond the too perfect masks of boredom or blankness he wore – masks Neil were all too familiar with, considering his past. He’d never managed to be as expressionless as Andrew did, but he’d been so many other people through the years and had learned to hide the pain behind defiance and a determination to never give in.

“I think it’s safe to say that Andrew confuses a good bit of us, which is a shame because on one level, he’s simple to understand.”

“Yes, he keeps his word and he protects what he sees as his to protect,” Neil agreed, still a bit unbelieving that Andrew considered him as one of the latter.

Renee nodded and reached out to pick a bundle of holly berries as they walked past a bush. “He takes his responsibilities seriously.” Her lovely face twisted with grief as she crushed the berries between her long, nimble fingers. “I wish I could say the same.”

Neil came to a stop as he watched the red juice drip to the ground, as he took in the way that the naiad’s shoulders hunched forward and her head hung low as if burdened with grief – grief or guilt. “I think if anyone’s to blame for Seth here, it’s me,” he admitted in a quiet voice.

That made Renee look up at him and shake her head. “No, you were facing your father and the Moriyamas, were dealing with everything they were throwing at you. This was something I should have handled better, something I knew was a weakness of his and so I should have kept a better watch on him. Andrew has his family and you under his protection, I watch over the rest of the Foxes.” A sad laugh escaped her as she let the crushed berries fall to the ground. “Except I didn’t do a very good job, did I? All I did this time was give Seth a peaceful end to make up for my failure.”

“Sometimes that’s all you can do,” Neil admitted as the memory of that night on the beach tore at him, brought up the grief that never seemed to go away despite the years and the distance. “It’s what I did for my mother, you know.” When Renee stared at him with solemn dark eyes, he nodded. “My father may have landed the killing blow, but it was my magic which ended her life. She wanted it done before he or his people found us.”

Sympathy shone in those eyes of her as she gazed at him, but she didn’t reach out to give him a hug or to pat him on the shoulder, didn’t say anything for several seconds. “For something that brings such relief, it hurts so badly,” she said with quiet certainty.

“Yes, it does.” He rubbed at the center of his chest as he remembered the awful feeling of his mother’s magic settling inside of him. “But who else would do it for them?”

“That is true.” Renee nodded before she gave her fingers a quick lick; if it had been anyone but her, Neil would be concerned but somehow he didn’t think the holly juice would affect her at all. “I won’t fail the others,” she swore, her tone quiet yet fervent.

He didn’t think she’d failed Seth at all, not really. Not when it seemed to him that the changeling had already been one foot in the grave due to his goblin fruit addiction, when the Moriyamas had planned things out so well. But he also knew that sometimes, words were meaningless. “I believe you.”

Renee gave him a small, sweet smile at that and nodded toward the willow tree in the distance, where the wolves could be seen waiting for him. “I bet you’re happy to be back here.”

Neil managed a slight smile of his own. “No more of Kevin’s snoring, at the least. No more boots.” He thumped the pair tucked into the bag thrown over his left shoulder. “And hopefully no more of Jorea’s fussing about my hair for a while.” Hopefully.

Renee laughed at that. “You’ll find out soon enough, I suppose. Feel up to a nice soak?”

The offer made Neil groan in delight at the thought of the pool of hot water; if it was anyone but Renee offering he’d turn it down, but the wolves would be there and somehow, he knew she wasn’t a threat. Somehow he wasn’t afraid to be naked near her when she bore her own scars and he didn’t pick up the slightest bit of interest from her – it helped, too, that bit of knowledge he’d gained from Andrew the night before.

Andrew….

Neil did his best to push aside all thoughts of the necromancer at the moment despite the frustration and anger he felt over their bond; they were back at the Foxhole Court and could have a bit more space between them, which probably was a good thing. It would give him an opportunity to figure out what was going on with them, to analyze all these new emotions and urges Andrew brought out in him. To give Andrew a chance to decide if he regretted what he’d done with Neil on the dance floor.

Why did that thought make Neil’s chest ache?

“A soak would be wonderful,” Neil told Renee, eager for some sort of distraction.

“Yes, I think we both could use a chance to relax and meditate.” Renee gave her fingers another lick. “Clarity is good.”

“Uhm… yes?” Neil wasn’t sure he wanted clarity as much as certain thoughts to just go away.

“You’ll see,” Renee assured him with a warm smile.

That’s what Neil was afraid of, to be honest.

*******    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> There were a couple of scenes I had wanted for this chapter (including another Neil and Allison) which will have to wait until the next one. It got long enough as it was. NEXT TIME.
> 
> Kevin's getting SO CLOSE to getting some bling. SO CLOSE.
> 
> I need to get a commission fic done, but I'm hoping it won't set this back any (next week should be less hectic. SHOULD). 
> 
> Hmm, was there something I wanted to say? At this point, just trying to get this chapter posted.
> 
> And as always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated.


	13. Look At Those Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, another chapter down. We get a few things done here (I think we're creeping toward some sort of resolution? This fic has already gone on sooo long). We shall see.
> 
> No new warnings, though there's a dark moment or two. Someone's Unseelie nature comes out, what can I say.  
> *******

*******

After everything that had happened at the High Court, Neil should be pleased with how quiet it was at the Foxhole Court - how he didn't have to put up with people staring at or plotting against him. Yet in a way, it was almost too quiet.

If one could consider a simmering anger in their head to be 'quiet', he supposed; he didn't see Andrew very much, but he felt him, suffered the emotions that the necromancer felt for his brother, the anger and frustration and confusion that buzzed in Neil's head like agitated bees defending their queen and hive. He wanted to ask what was going on, why was it that two brothers - twins at that - couldn't get along, but the few times he saw Andrew, the absolute blankness on his friend's face made the words catch in his throat and go no further.

Neil was an only child so he couldn't understand the bonds between siblings, could barely understand the bonds of family when his was so messed up, so he decided that it was best to mind his own business despite the permanent headache.

After a few days of Neil mostly enjoying the peace and quiet of the gardens, Andrew came out to the willow tree where he was busy making a new batch of hexes while leaning against Nuit's side as the pixies played a game that involved tossing a chestnut back and forth. Andrew coughed a bit at all the pixie dust in the air and sighed when he caught sight of Neil, who realized that he and the wolves were covered with the stuff. "You look like you went to a rave or something."

"Okay." Neil frowned as he finished the one hex. "What's a 'rave'?" Was it some sort of battle?

Andrew's expression turned sour for the fleetest of moments before he shook his head. "I didn't come here to enlighten idiots but to ask you a question. Will you go with me into the mortal world?"

"And such a great way to go about that," Neil said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "What next, hmm? Why don't you ask me to give you a knowe, too?"

There was a faint twitch to Andrew's left eyebrow as he folded his arms across his broad chest. "I don't want to put up with snark, either, so just answer the damn question."

Neil sighed as he set the hex aside. "Why do you want me to go into the mortal world? I didn't think we could even do that, not when we were told to stay in the knowe."

Some of Andrew's frustration lessened at the questions. "Wymack's going to have to let us go sooner or later, and if he doesn't, we can always use your ability to shadow walk." When Neil arched an eyebrow at that, Andrew merely shrugged as he reached for his pack of cigarettes. “He’s being unduly paranoid.”

The man might have a few reasons for that paranoia considering everything that had happened at the High Court, but Neil didn’t feel like mentioning them when half of the Foxes were busy trying to cheer Allison up after Seth’s death. “You’re still not telling me _why_ you want us to go into the mortal world,” he said with a slight shiver while thinking about dealing with all that iron and polluted air and humans.

“Because there’s something I need to take care of there, and I don’t want to be distracted by what happens when we’re too far apart,” Andrew said, the words slurred a little since he was in the process of lighting a cigarette.

“So you think it’ll be better if I’m distracting you by being right there with you?” Neil stared at him in disbelief.  “Did you really think this through?”

“Yes.” Andrew gave him a narrow look as he snapped the lighter shut. “I’ll ask Bee to come up with some sort of potion that’ll keep you from getting so sick, pathetic weakling that you are.”

Did the insane, ill-mannered bastard understand that he was right here asking Neil for a _favor_? When Jorea took to calling Andrew names (in Pixish, thankfully), Neil didn’t even try to defend the necromancer. “How can I possibly say ‘no’?”

“Wonderful, so you’re in,” Andrew said, choosing to ignore the scathing sarcasm which had accompanied that statement.

Why the hell had Neil _ever_ left the Dark Road?

By the time Neil had stopped cursing in old Fae, Andrew had sauntered away and he missed his chance to ask the bastard about returning to the shadow realm to find Titania’s ring for Kevin. Which was just as well, because Neil may have been tempted to ask the wolves to chase down and eat a certain arrogant necromancer despite his broad shoulders and muscular chest and the way he could calm Neil down with a simple touch and make him feel so good just by being near and-

Andrew really, _really_ confused Neil.

He had hoped that some time apart would help him figure out what was going on between him and the necromancer, if his uncle had been right to be concerned about them. If the strain of being around his father and having other people decide his fate had affected him so much, had made him seek the comfort and reassurance of another person – someone like his mother.

Not that Andrew was exactly like his mother, not really. He didn’t lash out with cruel hands and harsh words to goad Neil on, to keep him moving forward, keep him on his feet despite the pain and uncertainty. But there was that same core of strength and certainty to Andrew which reminded Neil of his mother, a same sort of sharpness that Andrew was quick to turn on people who harmed those under his protection, a verbal edge Andrew was willing to turn on Neil when he felt Neil was being an idiot.

There was a comfort in knowing that Andrew would support and look out for him… but there was more to it than that. There was also a sense of disappointment that Andrew had walked away after talking to Neil for just a few minutes, after not even touching him.

Neil had never wanted _anyone_ to touch him before. It was confusing and frustrating and slightly frightening to feel that way, to wish that Andrew had reached out to pull him close, to comb fingers through his hair and stroke along his ears and-

He felt his heart race and an odd, twisting emotion inside of him, felt anxious and energetic and empty all at once. It was such a foreign, unknown thing for him to experience, and only at the thought of Andrew.

Andrew, who could feel what he did, Neil remembered with a sudden rush of embarrassment as he groaned and buried his face in his hands while Jorea and a few of the pixies asked him if he was all right, as Nuit nudged him in the ear. “Come on, I need to soak,” he declared as he considered drowning himself in a pool of water to end his misery.

He didn’t drown, though the consideration he felt over the bond didn’t do anything to lessen his embarrassment; at least Renee came out when he was finished and asked him to join her while she harvested a few herbs. They talked about general things – how Allison seemed to have moved on from grief into anger and had burned most of Seth’s clothes the night before, how one could find Kevin in the knowe by the Brownies hovering around the Tuatha de Danann, and that Wymack had threatened to dock Andrew’s pay if his spirits destroyed any more tapestries. Neil told her about the hexes he’d made for the pixies so far that day.

Renee laughed upon hearing about the one that would have a person shouting out bad sonnets based off of every thought that entered their head (Neil had been somewhat inspired by Nicky for that one, though at least the changeling managed to curb his tongue somewhat). “That… can be potentially dangerous. I hope they tuck that one out of the way.” She nodded to Jorea who was once again on Neil’s shoulder.

The small Fae sniffed as she toyed with a strand of Neil’s hair. “It’s not for this knowe,” she said in English, a sure sign of her approval of the naiad.

“Oh?” Renee gave Neil a questioning look at that.

Since Jorea had said something in the first place, Neil assumed it was fine to explain. “I seem to be making them for most of the pixie clans now.” He waggled his sore fingers at Renee and smiled, the expression rueful.

“A king must look after his subjects,” Jorea told him as she tugged on his hair before she started to braid it, which made Renee laugh.

“Funny, I don’t feel like the one in charge here,” Neil sighed, which just made Jorea cackle in delight, along with several other of the pixies.

“A wise king also knows which battles to fight,” Renee told him with a placid smile he didn’t trust for a moment. “I’m happy to think about how more knowes will have a bit of wildness to them once more.”

“ _She’s a good one_ ,” Jorea murmured to Neil as she continued to braid.

Neil tried to nod, but it was a bit difficult to do when a sharp-clawed Fae had one’s hair in their grip so he settled for a slight smile in return. He watched as a humming Renee trimmed the rosemary plants while he rubbed his hand along the gauntlet and Nuit chased Ombré a few feet away. “Ah, so, Andrew said something about you.” He waited until Renee had paused in her harvesting to look at him with a curious expression. “Something about you liking girls?”

“Yes?” Renee folded her hands on her lap despite the dirt clinging to them and the pale color of her pink skirt.

“Uhm, yeah.” Neil felt his cheeks and the tips of his ears heat up in embarrassment. “So I was just wondering… how do you _know_ you like them?”

Renee’s expression softened as she gazed up at him from where she was kneeling by the neat row of herbs. “Oh, I see.” She seemed to think of that as she twisted a strand of her pale, blue-tipped hair around her right forefinger. “I guess I’d say that they make me feel good, that I’m happy to be with them and I want to make them happy, too. I want to be with them when I’m not around them and I miss them until we’re together again.” A faint laugh escaped her as she let go of her hair and shook her head. “That sounds so trite, doesn’t it?”

“No, not really.”

“ _Is this about the small, arrogant one_?” Jorea complained.

Neil frowned at his friend. “I wish you wouldn’t call him that.”

“Ah, this is about Andrew, isn’t it?”

When Neil gaped at Renee, she smiled, the expression pleased. “You let him get away with claiming you on the dance floor, after all, and he seems to calm you down. Plus, there’s….” She took to humming again. "He seems drawn to you. I’ve never seen him take to someone like he has to you.”

“This is the person who nearly cut me in half the first time we met,” Neil told her, not too sure about that ‘take’ part. “And threatened me with iron the second time.”

Renee became even more pleased while Jorea squawked in indignation and the pixies darted in the air while complaining about the ‘arrogant one’. “Oh yes, definitely taken with you.”

Okay, now Neil was even _more_ confused than before. “Uhm, all right. You’ve been….” No, not even _he_ could manage a half-truth like ‘you’ve been very helpful’.

“Andrew’s not very good at admitting certain things,” Renee explained, as if that would make it better. “Even to himself.”

“You know,” Neil mused allowed as Ombré came back to him to have her nose scratched, “I don’t know why people talk about the Dark Road as if it’s such a bad place. One doesn’t have to put up with things like _this_ there.” With emotions and possible infatuation with unreadable necromancers.

Renee chuckled at that as she resumed harvesting some more herbs. “I believe it’s the whole ‘being eaten by shadow wolves’ thing they complain about, really.”

“But they deserve to eat, too.” Neil smiled at Ombré while Nuit barked. “No Brownies around to make them pasties every morning.”

“I’m not sure they wouldn’t eat the Brownies, but it would make for an interesting debate.” Which led to Neil and Renee talking about which Fae the wolves probably found the most delicious, with the wolves adding a bark or whine here or there – at least until Aaron came out to harvest some herbs as well and overheard them, only to stalk off with a repulsed look on his face while muttering about depraved lunatics.

Neil was rather certain that the healer didn’t like him very much.

A couple days later Neil was down by the one small pond cooking the… well, it sort of resembled a prickly stoat, he supposed, a rather large, spiky stoat with nasty fangs from the Dark Road, but the shadow wolves had no problems catching the things and they were tasty so he had a small fire going to cook it over when Allison tracked him down. Or at least he assumed that she had tracked him down since she had a determined expression on her face and was the most rumpled he’d ever seen the Valkyrie with her long blonde hair pulled up in a disheveled bun, dressed in an overlarge dark pink sweater which hung on her like a dress, dark blue tights which left the lower part of her calves exposed and some sort of fluffy pink shoes. Her face was a bit flushed and swollen as if she’d been crying, but her eyes were clear and she eyed his dinner with what appeared to be disdain.

“That looks disgusting and I think it’s a very good thing that it’s dead.”

Neil shrugged as he adjusted the spitted carcass a bit better over the small fire. “It tastes good. I’d, ah, offer you some, but….” He shrugged again as he glanced around at Nuit, Ombré, Danseur and Pilier who were sprawled out near the fire and around him.

“I prefer understated, thank you,” Allison told him as she sat down on the ground while brushing her cloth covered fingers along the slight yet elegant point of her right ear. “That really tastes good? It smells….” She paused to scrunch up her nose for a moment. “Eh, it smells odd, like soggy leaves or something. Dark Road things are weird.”

Neil didn’t take that personally. “There’s a smoky flavor to it, like hickory.” When Allison looked at him in disbelief, he shook his head. “Stuff there tastes a bit different.”

“Guess it’s better than everything tasting like chicken.” She was quiet for a minute or two after that while she picked at the fuzz on one of her odd shoes while he checked on his meal and the pixies dashed about in the air. Neil gazed at her through his thick bangs in-between checking on the roasting meat, until he decided it was cooked enough and pulled it away from the fire; the wolves whined in anticipation as he smiled at them and tossed them the… whatever’s limbs, then settled back to peel off strips of meat to feed himself.

Allison watched on in silence while Jorea chittered about how they’d managed to harvest enough elderberries that year thanks to the hexes keeping the foolish changelings at bay (Neil was grateful that she was talking in Pixish at the time) to make wine, which he’d have to enjoy with them once it was done. He nodded along and answered here and there as he ate, and once full let Ombré and Danseur finish the rest of the kill they’d brought him in the first place and then lick his hands clean while Allison sighed.

“Yes?”

She shook her head. “As soon as we’re able to leave the knowe, I’m going shopping.” She gave up on tearing at the ridiculous shoes to point a finger tipped with a ragged nail at him. “I don’t care if we’re supposed to be a pastoral race or some such shit as that, you’re getting a picnic basket with the works if you insist on this whole ‘rustic’ lifestyle nonsense.”

“Okay.” Neil thought about that for a moment as his fingers curled around Ombré’s jaws. “I have no idea what you just meant by that.”

“Of course you don’t, you oblivious fool,” Allison said, for a moment a smile on her face and what seemed to be levity in her husky voice, and then it all came crashing down as her voice cracked and the smile twisted with sadness. “Of course,” she repeated as she rubbed at her eyes.

“Are you…” Neil wasn’t sure he should finish that question, not when he thought he already knew the answer to that question, not when she was grieving for a person who was dead in part because of him. “Uhm, I can get Renee or Abby, if you want.” He glanced at Jorea to ask her to send off one of the pixies when Allison let out a shuddering breath.

“No,” she snapped as she pushed back the loose strands of hair falling onto her face. “Dammit, I’m tired of everyone hovering around me as if I’ll break at any moment. I’m not weak.”

Neil hunched closer to the fire while Ombré pressed against his left side. “No, you just lost someone you cared about.”

That seemed to deflate some of Allison’s defiance as she stared into the flames in front of them. “Yeah. But a bunch of tea to drink and being told ‘one day it’ll be better’ isn’t doing me much good, even if they mean well,” she confessed. “I feel like I’m crawling in my skin.”

He couldn’t really understand, since when he lost his mother there hadn’t been anyone around to offer him any sympathy. “Still… I… I’m…”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Allison told him as she folded her clothed hands beneath her chin and glared at him. “Don’t even try to say that word to me!”

Neil flinched at the heat in her tone and shook his head. “But if it wasn’t for-“

“Nope, not buying it, Bright eyes.” Allison let out a slow breath as she once more focused on the flames in front of him. “You know, I never really understood goblin fruit before I met Seth. It was there when I grew up, was this fun thing to drink and eat which made me feel good, was this thing I knew that you shouldn’t give changelings and was bad for them, but I didn’t really _understand_ it.” She sniffed a little and blinked when Ellyan brought her a scrap of cloth to dab at her nose. “Huh, they’re useful, aren’t they?”

“They’re polite,” Neil clarified while he nodded in thanks to the rainbow-hued winged pixie.

“Right, after all they’ve done to the garden the last few weeks – they’re _polite_.” When Neil gave her a cold look, she sighed. “Why do you like them so much? The shadow wolves I get with the way they look after you, but no one thinks much of pixies.” She waved the hand holding onto the makeshift handkerchief about in the air. “They’re so… common, and they aren’t much use when it comes to fighting.”

“Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they’re useless,” Neil argued. “A lot of people underestimated me and my mom because of our size.” He shivered a little as he thought about those fights while Jorea gave a slight tug to one of his curls. “They’re everywhere and people don’t pay attention to them, so they know a lot and while they can’t cast big magic, a lot of times little magic can do you in if it’s done right.” A hex thrown at the right time, a fairy ring cast at the right place, pixie dust blown at the right moment.

“ _Better to be underestimated than overestimated_ ,” Jorea agreed in Pixish. “ _Ignored than watched too closely_.”

“Yes,” Neil said as he rubbed Ombré’s ears. “Attention can be deadly, and the more powerful you seem, the more someone wants to tear you down.”

Allison sniffed at that. “I never could get Seth to understand that, never make him accept that he was fine as he was.” She eyed the pixies with something akin to regret. “That’s why he turned to goblin fruit, you know. He wanted something to make him feel better, to feel good, the bastard.” She shook her head as she twisted the cloth between her fingers. “He always laughed when I asked him if he couldn’t be happy with what he had, with me.” For a couple of seconds tears shimmered in her blue eyes and then her jaw hardened and she drew in a quick breath. “The bastard told me that when the day came and I realized how much better off I’d be without him, the damn juice would still be there to make him feel good.”

Neil stared at her with growing apprehension. “I’m… I don’t know what to say.”

That startled a grim laugh out of the Valkyrie as she wiped at her nose with the cloth. “Ha! Well, you’re honest, I give you that. You don’t tell me crap like ‘it was the goblin fruit talking’ or ‘he really loved you’.” Her gaze grew distant for a moment. “I know he loved me, it’s just that he didn’t love himself enough that was the problem. I wouldn’t have stuck around for so long if I didn’t think he cared about me. I just… I just thought I could get through to him that he was worth it, make him give asking Renee to pull that damn drug out of his veins like she did with Andrew a try before it was too late.”

All of that sounded so confusing and a bit terrible to Neil, to let someone have so much power over you like that. To make you hope so much when you knew it would just end up in pain – was that what it had been like for his mother? For her to feel that his father had felt something for her but that it wasn’t enough to make him stop hurting her and Neil? Not enough for him to put them before Tetsuji’s hold on him?

Then Neil scoffed, because somehow he doubted that Nathan Wesninski had ever given a damn about him or Mary, that it must have been one incredible act for the bastard to have convinced her that he’d ever felt a thing for her. No, he felt sorry for his mother even as anger welled inside of him at her ever having fallen for his bastard father’s lies.

Ombré gave an anxious whine and licked close to his left ear in an effort to cheer him up while Jorea tugged on his hair once more, which prompted Neil to wince and push the she-wolf away. “So what are you going to do now?” he asked in an attempt to distract them both.

“Hmm?” Well, first I’m going to have a nice long soak until I feel presentable again. Then I'm going to plan a nice big shopping spree for when Wymack finally sets us loose, with a proper drinking binge on top of that." She gave him a wide smile possessed with a hint of malice. "And if I run across anyone from Evermore during all of that? Well, I'll add a nice workout or two to those plans, too." She cracked her knuckles for added emphasis.

"How cathartic," Neil commented as he rubbed Ombré’s ears.

"Isn't it?" The smile faded away as she tucked her hands back into the sleeves of the overlarge sweater. "I know it won't bring him back, nothing ever will, but I won't let them get away with thinking that he was something disposable, that they could use him like that."

"No, he wasn't." Not that the Moriyamas cared, as evident by their behavior at the High Court. Neil hesitated for a moment before he continued. "Still... it must have been worth something, to have... I mean...." He really didn't know what he wanted to say to Allison just then, how to put into words that at least she had some time with Seth, had been certain that there was something between them for however long they'd been together. For all of his life, all Neil had was his mother, her abrasive, strict presence by his side until the day his father had ripped even that away, and then it had been him and the wolves on the Dark Road.

There were more people in his life now, here at the Foxhole Court. There was... there was whatever was going on between him and Andrew, was the bond and the way Andrew made him feel, but he didn't know if he could say it was anything like Allison had with Seth. Not when he didn't know if he had it in him to feel that way about another person, or if Andrew wanted someone as messed up and broken like Neil. Someone only worth the gauntlet on their wrist and the blood flowing in their veins.

Allison gave him a wobbly smile despite his pathetic attempt at consolation. "Yeah, it was worth it, not that he ever believed me." Then she took to frowning as she looked him up and down. "We need to do something about you, because you can do better than Minyard, you know."

On Neil's shoulder, Jorea sat up straight and nodded quick enough that the lash of her hair tickled his neck and jaw. "Yes! Short and arrogant one is not suitable," she declared.

"Short and foul-tempered, is more like it," Allison agreed. "I mean, I sorta get it with those shoulders of his, and maybe you like the broody type. But aim higher, Bright eyes. What about that Leannan Sidhe you were dancing with, hmm?"

"Not. You. Too," Neil gritted out as he jerked his left hand through his hair.

"Yes! Tall and distant one!"

"No, _no_ Jean!" Neil told Jorea for what had to be the twentieth time.

"Ho, so _that's_ Jean," Allison said as a true smile formed on her lips; despite the detested topic, Neil felt something warm inside of him to see the expression on her face just then. "I've heard a lot about him."

"He's a friend, somewhat," Neil argued. "And don't you have a bath to take?"

Allison chuckled at that and stood up. "We're not done with this topic, just so you know, but I'm beginning to offend myself so I'll be leaving now." Neil didn't know what she meant by that, she looked fine to him and he didn't smell anything, but he gave her a slight wave 'goodbye' while Jorea muttered about 'suitable mates' of all things.

It wasn't often when Neil regretted what he'd done on the Dark Road after his mother had died, but right then he wished that he could still stomach drinking a bottle of brandy without wanting to throw it right back up - being able to get drunk enough to not deal with all of this would be so nice.

Instead, he put out the fire and cleaned up the mess from his meal to ensure that nothing tried to eat the remaining scraps, then went to see if Matt at least would want to play a game of tag with him and the wolves since Dan was often busy for Wymack these days. To his surprise, Nicky agreed to play along as well.

The two Fae appeared to have fun chasing Neil and the wolves around and attempting to get the red leather ball away from him - Matt by using his flames to distract or startle Neil, Nicky by flinging small balls of water at him until Neil was both soaked, a touch singed, more than a little exhausted and surprisingly happy after a couple of hours. Pilier and Danseur gave him a few pleased licks then slipped back to the Dark Road while Matt waved goodbye, but Nicky collapsed onto the ground not too far away (just out of Ombré’s and Nuit's reach).

"Wow, okay, I'm done, consider me done," Nicky gasped as he lay sprawled on his back on the grass. Then he seemed to think about something and lifted his head to give Pilier a nervous smile, his dark skin flushed and usually artfully styled hair clinging to his sweaty forehead. "Uhm, not done enough that you can consider me a meal, just done in a 'yes I know I'm lazy, but something this gorgeous isn't meant for manual labor, dammit'."

Despite himself, Neil found himself smiling. "Think much of yourself, do you?"

"Someone has to," Nicky muttered as his head fell back to the ground, and then he smiled, too. "Erik certainly does but he’s not around enough."

"Ah, yes." Neil took to rubbing Danseur's belly, which provoked a pleased rumble and much tail wagging from the young she-wolf. "He does... well, you two look happy together." Neil wasn't used to couples looking happy together, but then again, the only 'couple' he really knew were his parents so he hadn't much to go on, before arriving at the Foxhole Court.

Nicky's expression softened at that. "We are, we really are." He brushed aside the hair clinging to his forehead and sighed as he gazed up at the clear blue sky. "It's so hard when we spend a little time together and then have to go back to our own knowes, but we're working on that ending soon." Then he grimaced. "Though I have to say, my cousins are providing a wonderful distraction this time around." It would be impossible to miss the sarcasm in his voice just then.

"You mean them fighting right now." Part of Neil felt it was wrong to pry into Andrew's life like this when he knew how private the necromancer was about things... and part of him felt as if it was owed to him when he was stuck feeling Andrew's acidic emotions.

"I mean them acting like morons," Nicky complained as he sat up, then groaned as he rubbed the small of his back with his right fist. "I'm too young and sexy to feel this old," he grumbled for a moment before he plucked a few strands of long grass and began to weave them together as if to have something to do. "You'd think by now that Aaron would realize that Andrew is going to stick his nose in whatever he thinks is a possible danger and accept it - Andrew's always looked out for us and that's never going to change."

Neil remembered Andrew asking him about going into the mortal world. "And that danger has something to do with the mortal world?"

Nicky gave a nervous laugh and tore up the braid or whatever he'd been doing with the strands of grass. "Uhm, more like 'someone'." He sighed at Neil's look of confusion. "Not to go too deep into my cousins' depressing and troubled past, but Aaron seems to have a preference for dating humans, perhaps because he thought he was a human for so long. And that's... that's not really such a wise thing for him to do, for obvious reasons."

"Oh." Neil frowned at that; he knew some Fae liked to... well, he guessed the term was 'fool around' with mortals since rarely did anything long term come from the unions - anything but half-Fae and changelings, obviously. Being with humans required glamours and running the risk of coming across iron and other things that were poisonous to Fae, things which would expose their true nature and so weren't worth the risk of having a little 'fun'. Other than that, Neil supposed he didn't have much against the race. To be honest, he didn't think much of them - they were clever and could be useful, but they were just as cruel as the Fae and they were slowly destroying their world.

He'd certainly never thought about becoming involved with one beyond exchanging a kiss or two out of mere curiosity's sake, but then again, he'd never thought about becoming involved with anyone. At least, not until his path had crossed with that of a certain necromancer....

"So Andrew is just trying to keep Aaron safe?" Neil summed up. "And Aaron is unhappy about that?"

"Aaron's unhappy about a lot of things," Nicky said in a rather sour tone of voice. "Including the fact that Andrew's getting on his case about his latest girlfriend when Andrew's finally got someone of his own." Nicky gave Neil a pointed look at that comment, while Neil merely gazed back while he continued to pet Danseur. "What, not going to say anything?"

"Is there something to say?"

Nicky groaned as he threw his hands up in the air. "Why did I know you were going to say something like that?" Then he jabbed his right index finger toward Neil. "He danced with you, mister! In front of everyone at the High Court, right in the inner ring! When he doesn't even like dancing!"

"That was just to-"

"Oh no! He could have sent Renee in to save your fine ass, but he didn't." Nicky grinned as if pleased with himself. "So, let me be the first to officially welcome you to the family."

That was moving rather fast, wasn't it? When all Neil did was stare back at him, Nicky's smile faltered. "Uhm, is something wrong?" He sounded a little upset and nervous.

"I'm just sitting here trying to figure out why all of my 'families' are so messed up," Neil confessed.

That made Nicky wince, but he laughed at the same time. "Okay, I'll give you that one. But we're messed up in a good way." He seemed to think for a moment, too. "Mostly." His smile slipped a little. "Partially?" When Neil continued to stare at him, Nicky seemed to droop in defeat. "Yeah, you're screwed."

"That never was in doubt," Neil admitted, since that seemed to be his lot in life. "Just how long is this 'fight' going to last between the twins?" He was growing rather tired of being caught up in the negative emotions the animosity their quarrel inspired in Andrew.

"Ah, yeah, right." Nicky found a sudden interest in brushing off the specks of grass clinging to his black jeans.

"That bad?" Neil sighed as he resigned himself to the irritating 'buzzing' in his head.

Nicky shrugged as he resumed looking at Neil, the smile back on his face but slight. "I don't think Aaron and Andrew know how to relate to each other without being angry. I've tried to get them past it, Betsy's tried, Wymack and Abby have tried." He perked up a little. "Maybe you'll have better luck."

"Don't bet on it," Neil warned him as he pushed Danseur aside so he could stand up. Why did people think he had some sort of edge when it came to Andrew?

"One can hope, right?"

One could, but that didn't mean it would happen; Neil waved goodbye to the changeling as he walked away, having reached his limit in dealing with people for the day. He went off with the wolves to the willow tree where it was dark and quiet, where the pixies would keep Kevin (or the Brownies Kevin sent in his stead) from bothering him about asking about going after the damn ring. If he felt a spirit creep about the canopy of leaves, he decided to ignore as he always did, to consider it Andrew's way of checking on the knowe to ensure that things were all right. It wasn't anything more than that.

Neil did his best to push all thoughts of Andrew out of his head when Jorea came over to complain about some Red Caps who were antagonizing a clan of pixies in a patch of woods between two knowes.

He didn't know what he was going to do about Andrew and he didn't believe in the whole 'heir' thing, but Neil knew what it felt like when people tried to take advantage of you because they thought they had the upper hand. So he nodded to the wolves and told Jorea that it would be all right.

The gauntlet pulsed around Neil's wrist as he settled back against the trunk of the willow, just once, but he ignored that, too. He was growing rather good at ignoring things.

*******

Andrew leaned against the wall and watched while Aaron argued with Wymack yet again. “How much longer is this going to go on? Why are we hiding as if we’re afraid or ashamed?”

“The only thing I’m afraid of is how long I’m going to have to stand here and listen to you rant yet again about leaving the knowe,” Wymack complained while he rubbed at his forehead as if he had a headache. “Shut up about it.”

“But-“

“No, the more you bitch the longer I’m going to keep your ass grounded here, get it?” Wymack told him with a scowl. “I’m not doing this just to piss you off but to keep you safe so _enough_ ,” he growled out before stalking away.

For a moment it looked as if Aaron was going to follow along and keep arguing, maybe grab hold of the older Fae and take a swing, but instead he clenched his hands into fists and swore beneath his breath as he turned around to glare at Andrew. “Happy now? Once more you got your way.”

Andrew gave him a blank look in return for the usual vitriol spat his way. “I have nothing to do with this.”

“Right,” Aaron scoffed. “Like I’ll ever believe a thing you say.”

/ _Not-truth_./

“Go play with your plants and potions,” Andrew told his twin, unwilling to put up with Aaron’s hissy fits any more that day. “Maybe Abby will feel sorry for you – _maybe_.”

“What? Want some alone-time with your freak?” Aaron sneered. “Him and Renee were pretty close when I saw them the other day, looks like you have some competition going on,” his brother taunted as he walked away.

/ _Not-truth_./

Even without the torc’s assurance, Andrew ignored the jab as he lit one of his remaining cigarettes; he’d ‘felt’ that conversation and even had one of his spirits watch the two from a distance, and his brother couldn’t be any farther from the mark. Not when Neil hadn’t felt anything but uncertainty, confusion, exasperation, contemplation and even a bit of happiness during his time with Renee, and Andrew knew where Renee’s interest lay.

He had a good idea where Neil’s interest lay as well, even if he wasn’t sure he entirely trusted it, if he was putting some space between him and the idiot to give Neil some time to figure things out. He was giving himself some time, too, to see if he was less inclined to act like a fool now that things had quieted down, when Neil wasn’t in constant danger.

As much as Stuart was a prick, he’d been right about Neil being under a lot of stress back at the High Court, and Andrew as well. There was the damn bond between them as well, which only complicated things, which refused to allow Andrew to put _too_ much distance between Neil despite his best intentions.

He didn’t need to feel a growing sense of want – often followed by embarrassment – over the damn thing and then spend too much time wondering if it was him that Neil had thought about, him or maybe Jean. Even though Neil had sworn up and down that he wasn’t attracted to the Leannan Sidhe, some small part of Andrew’s mind wouldn’t let it go, wouldn’t let him believe that someone like Neil would really want _him_.

He’d just tossed the cigarette butt aside and was debating on if he should track down Kevin (and put up with more whining about going after the damn ring), talk to Bee (there’d be hot chocolate, there would also be a discussion on him and Aaron and probably _Neil_ ), or just go to his room and have some of his dwindling supply of whiskey. Wymack really did need to put an end to the lockdown soon since they were running low on supplies, as the few things which Dan brought back when she went out to talk to Rheman weren’t enough.

As if she’d been summoned by his thoughts, the dryad called out his name as she came down the hallway. “Hey! Andrew! Do you have a minute?”

“No,” he told her as he walked off in the opposite direction.

“Always so damn charming,” she muttered as she put those long legs of hers to use to catch up. “I have whiskey.”

/ _Truth_./

Dammit. Andrew gave her a displeased look unto she handed over the bottle, just a fifth of Walker Blue, but enough to appease him. “What do you want?”

“Just to talk for a few minutes.” When he continued walking while cracking the seal of the bottle, she sighed and pushed back a short loose curl which had fallen onto her forehead. “Of course you can’t make this easy. Look, I thought you might want to know what’s going on out there, all right?” She nodded to the torc which gleamed around his neck. “It has to do with the heirs.”

/ _Truth_./

That made him take a long swallow of the alcohol before he lowered the bottle. “What ‘heir’ stuff?” he asked as he came to a stop.

Dan appeared wary for a moment, but perhaps that had to do with the way the spirits had edged around her upon her bringing up that topic; she was dressed in black sneakers, leggings and a scuffed leather jacket with an orange t-shirt beneath it, as if she’d been out in the mortal world. “Look, more knowes are breaking away from the High Court after what happened there, are saying that they refuse to go along with a biased system. And I think… I think they’re doing it because they know about Neil being Maeb’s heir, and there’s talk about you and the torc.”

“Why does that matter?” It was just a damn piece of jewelry – both the torc and the gauntlet.

/ _Not-truth_./

He gritted his teeth together while Dan shook her head. “You know it’s more than that, especially after the High Court and the Moriyamas did what they could to make Neil their own, when he shows up with shadow wolves following him like obedient puppies and pixies everywhere. There’s something about him.” For a moment Dan – an Unseelie – closed her eyes and smiled while her hands pressed against her chest above her heart. Then she opened her dark eyes and gave Andrew a slight frown. “And there’s you, who somehow made all these powerful Fae obey you, made them tell you the truth – just like Oberon used to do. So yeah, people are talking about heirs.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew gave her a slight yet mocking grin. “I’m not Oberon.”

/ _Truth… and not-truth_./

Dan rolled her eyes at that. “No shit. How could I fail to realize that? But you’re wearing a torc which looks a lot like one of his and you’re powerful as hell, and you seem to have something going on with an Unseelie pureblood who supposedly is the spitting image of Maeb and who’s wearing her gauntlet. Any wonder people are talking?”

“Again, what does it matter if it’s just talk?” This was a waste of his time.

“Because it’s what they’re talking _about_ ,” Dan stressed. “And what they’re doing. They have the courage to break away from the High Court because they think you and Neil and whomever the Seelie heir turns out to be will be there to lead them.”

/ _Truth_./

“Then they’re a bunch of fools,” Andrew told her as he resumed walking away. “Blind leading the blind, eh? Why don’t you tell them what you really think of me to help disillusion them some?”

“Andrew, I’m not joking here! When people get this fervent about things, they don’t stop to listen, they just _act_.”

/ _Truth_./

He waved aside her concern and went off to his room where he could drink in peace, buffeted by Neil’s joy as he played the stupid game with Matt and Nicky and the mutts. There he was, the once and future king, content to be slobbered upon by dogs and waste the day doing useless things such as chase a ball.

Andrew needed more alcohol.

He stayed the rest of the evening in his room going through the bottle of whiskey and whatever snacks he’d squirreled away as well as one of his remaining packs of cigarettes, content to watch over the knowe through his spirits to make sure that everything was all right. Aaron spent some time with Abby then retreated to his room to sulk, Nicky hung out with Matt, Dan and Renee in the common room, where the four of them were surprised when Allison joined in, Kevin was busy going through books in the library as always and Neil talking to the pixies in that damn language. After a while, Andrew fell asleep.

His dreams were fragmented, were bits of various foster homes flashing through his head until he found himself back at the Spears’, back in that bedroom where he unable to move while a rotting Drake slowly approached with iron chains held in his decaying hands. Right before the bastard could drape the metal restraints around Andrew’s trembling limbs, there was a pain in Andrew’s head, in his chest, and it took him several seconds to realize that he was awake in his bed at the Foxhole Court, that the pain wasn’t from iron but from Neil having slipped through the shadows to someplace a bit too far away.

The spirits fluttering around him in an attempt to soothe, Andrew sat hunched over on his bed, the seats twisted around him and his black t-shirt clinging to his body with sweat, his face damp with it, and cursed the damn fool as he ran his fingers over the armbands to assure himself that he was fine, that he was safe, that he would never be so helpless again.

Just when he’d managed to calm himself down, there was the feeling of… of something so dark, so cold, across the bond he shared with Neil. Something like anger but not, something too controlled, something too distant, something a part of Andrew recognized – the part of him that had sent Drake’s body out into the Mustang to cover up what had happened in that small bedroom all those years ago, that had plotted out the best way to kill Tilda.

Oh, Neil hadn’t gone out to fetch a bottle of whiskey or take the mutts for a walk, had he? Especially not when something seemed to ‘rush’ into Andrew, something which made him sit up straight as an odd burn settled in his chest, a peculiar sort of euphoria similar to inhaling second-hand smoke when he craved a cigarette.

He sat on the bed for a couple of seconds before he went to wash off in the bathroom, then changed into clean clothes and left his room. Logic dictated that Neil would return to the willow tree since that seemed to be his preferred sleeping ground (since he didn’t care for a comfortable bed, the fool), and Andrew was halfway there when the ache in his chest lessened after a ‘flare’ of Neil’s magic let him know that the idiot had used the shadows to slip back into the knowe.

The wolves flowed through the night as if part of it, breathing pieces of darkness save for the gleam of sharp white fangs and the reflection of moonlight on their liquid black eyes. Neil was just as silent and just as fluid of movement at the heart of the pack, the brightness of his hair matched by splashes of blood on his white shirt and the gleam in those huge eyes of his, pupils blown in the twilight. The gauntlet was a silver spiked weapon on his right arm from his razor-clawed fingers to his shoulder, all sharp edges which glittered with a deceptive delicateness.

Around Neil and the pack flitted more pixies than Andrew had yet to see in one place, a myriad of colors and wings as they cried out in their sharp language with evident delight, as the air became saturated with iridescent dust. Yet Neil and the shadow wolves stalked onward without a sound, without pause, even though Andrew knew they had to have sensed him and the spirits.

So he waited until they were right before him before he spoke. “Have fun tonight? Go out on a date with Jean?”

The wolves fanned out before they sat down in an almost straight line – there were six of them now, he thought two from the first time they’d shown up had returned – while Neil stood only a couple of feet away. A Neil with almost pure black eyes and tousled hair and a blank expression, his emotions possessing an echo of the darkness from before. “Jea- why do you keep bringing him up?”

“I don’t know, why else would you leave the knowe in the middle of the night?” While Andrew spoke, Jorea landed on Neil’s right shoulder, her pale dress splattered with what looked to be blood as well. “To play with the pixies? Pixies and puppies, what fun.”

“I went to help them out,” Neil said as he curled the fingers of his right hand, which was still covered in silver, at least until Ombré shifted close enough for those fingers to unfurl and rest on top of her dark head. “What do you want?” Now there was some confusion and irritation cutting through the darkness.

What a loaded question that was, right? “You went off on your own, a highly stupid thing even for an idiot like you, in the middle of the night, and come back covered in blood. Consider me curious,” Andrew answered with no little amount of sarcasm.

Neil cocked his head to the side, still appearing so… so… so damn _fey_. So unnatural and breathtaking and unreal that Andrew wanted to grab hold of him and shake him senseless then kiss him breathless. “The blood’s not mine.”

/ _Truth._ /

As if that answered anything.

“Let’s try this again,” Andrew gritted out as he felt his already thin patience wearing fraying. “Whose blood is it?”

“Oh.” Neil glanced down at his ruined clothes. “Red Cap.”

Red Cap – Seelie, though not the most beloved of Titania’s ‘children’, much like the Brownies. “How funny he must think he is,” Andrew told the spirits. “And what possessed you to up and slaughter some Red Caps this night, hmm? The mutts feel like a bedtime snack?”

Neil didn’t have a chance to respond, as Jorea launched herself into the air. “Our king he is,” she all but hissed at Andrew. “Protects us, he did.” She stuck her thin chest out with pride as she bared her sharp teeth. “No more are we weak.” The rest of the pixies cheered and flitted about as she returned to her spot on the idiot’s shoulder.

/ _Truth_./

Andrew thought about that for a moment while Neil stood there amidst the maelstrom of flying pests. “So what, you went into a knowe and killed some Red Caps because they bothered your pets?” For once, Andrew let emotion shade his voice, put as much derision he could into the words as he thought back to Dan’s warning earlier.

“No.” Neil also allowed the emotion he was feeling creep into his tone, the absolute coldness flowing over the bond as he gazed at Andrew with those eyes ringed with the tiniest sliver of blue, his face an expressionless mask; a small voice whispered inside Andrew’s head about how ‘Unseelie’ could mean ‘unholy’, and that was what Neil appeared like just then – unholy, unnatural, unreal.

“No,” he repeated as he raised his chin, his face glittering from a fine sheen of pixie dust. “They’re _not_ pets, they’ve given me their trust and I won’t see them hurt. I won’t see anyone who relies upon me hurt and abused by someone who thinks they’re stronger and bigger, I _won’t.”_ Moonlight shone off of the reflective inner layer of his eyes, made them gleam like beacons as he gazed at Andrew. “Red Caps found a clan living outside a knowe and thought them fair game.” He bared a smile that would have given the Butcher pause, it was so severe and cruel. “We reminded them that there’s more predators out there than them.” Nuit ‘smiled’ at that while Pilier made a pleased huffing sound.

/ _Truth_./

Andrew was quiet for a few seconds as he took all of that in. “And if you’ve started a war with what you’ve done tonight?” Was there a chance the Moriyamas had set the Red Caps on the pixies to goad Neil into doing just this?

“They drew first blood,” Neil argued. “I merely drew last.”

/ _Truth./_

The last thing Andrew needed was a damn piece of gold siding with an idiot. “That’s not an argument I’m prepared to take to the High Court, or whatever’s left of it at this point,” Andrew said as he pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off a headache. However, Neil was right, _for once_. For this one instance, not that he was going to tell the idiot that and have it thrown in his face for centuries.

Maybe the Moriyamas weren’t behind tonight, or maybe it was them testing the waters to see what Neil would do. Either way, Andrew doubted they’d be so lucky in the future, especially with Miss ‘I’ve got a king wrapped around my tiny finger’ there to egg Neil on; he was willing to bet Jorea would be quick to unleash the literal hounds at the first sign of anyone bothering pixies in the future.

On one hand, as someone who’d been stepped on and looked down upon and spat on for a good bit of his life, Andrew could understand that mentality. Pixies were treated like shit by the Fae because they were small and numerous and yeah, they were vicious but get one or two of them alone and oh what fun to break them. A few powerful Fae together could take down a moderate-sized pixie clan, if they put in the planning and effort – and who would complain? Who would go to war for the pests?

On the other hand, Andrew wasn’t going to have everything fucked up because of Jorea and her people, even if Neil was the Unseelie queen reborn or whatever. _Andrew_ hadn’t sworn to protect them, and Neil was worth more than a bunch of flying pests.

So where did that leave them? Obviously appealing to Neil’s sense of rationale was out, since logic as well as common sense were completely foreign concepts to the idiot. Andrew could attempt to handle it as a matter between heirs… except he had a feeling if he tried to pull ‘rank’ on Neil, things would go badly. Really, _really_ badly.

/ _Truth. Truth. Truth, truth, truthtruthtruthtruthtru_ -/

Enough, he got the fucking hint already.

That left him with one other option, and as amusing as it had been to frustrate the hell out of Kevin the last several days, it was obviously time to balance out their little triumvirate or whatever was going on between them in the desperate hope that the coward could help rein in the idiot.

Yeah, they were fucked.

“Go get washed off and changed,” Andrew told Neil as he motioned to the idiot’s appearance. “Then meet me back here in about half an hour.”

A hint of normal emotion finally showed on Neil’s face. “Why? So you can insult me and my friends some more?”

“Meet me back here without looking as if you just survived a massacre or else I’ll find another shadow walker who can take me and Kevin to the Dark Road,” Andrew called out since he was already heading back to the main building, and nearly stumbled when he felt Neil’s excitement and happiness smash into him.  Some people, so easy to please.

The spirits let him know that Kevin wasn't passed out in the library for once, but in his bedroom, so he went there to wake up the coward after he stopped by his room to grab a few things. The wards on the door would keep most people out, but not Andrew, not the person sworn to protect him, so Andrew sauntered in and was surprised to find the rooms in a decent state for once, no sign of empty bottles strewn about or stacks of books everywhere. Kevin was even tucked into bed - or at least was, until a couple of spirits lifted the mattress to dump him onto the floor.

There was a flare of magic, of cherries and sweet broom, until Kevin woke up enough to realize that it was just Andrew and then muttered in French and even a bit of Gaelic, something he didn't do unless he was really tired or drunk. "What do you want?" Kevin asked as he combed his fingers through his sleep-tousled hair, his demeanor surly and eyes red.

"Well, I was going to see if you wanted to go on a little adventure but if you're going to be all shitty with me, forget it." Andrew waved to him and went to leave the room, but Kevin could move with a surprising amount of speed when he set his mind to it.

"Wait, no! No!" Kevin flailed about, mindful not to touch Andrew as he got between him and the exit. "Is this about the Dark Road? Did Neil finally ask you to go there?"

That earned the coward a narrow look as Andrew crossed his arms over his chest. " _I_ decided that it was time to go, so get your ass into gear."

"All right!" Kevin broke out into a rare grin as he hurried over to his dresser and began to change out of the t-shirt and loose cotton pants he'd worn to bed - most likely, what the Brownies had dressed him in before being put to bed; Andrew suspected that the small Fae were responsible for Kevin's room and him not currently being face-down in a pile of drool on a library table at the moment. "I'm mostly packed, I've just been waiting for you to change your mind," Kevin explained as he pulled on a pair of thick woolen pants and a simple tunic for once, all black, and a pair of knee-high leather boots. Once dressed, he strapped on his sword belt, complete with sword and knife, and a couple of pouches which most likely contained a good bit of charms and spell stones before grabbing a pack from the corner of the room. "Now all we need are some supplies from the kitchen."

"So let's go." Andrew had grabbed some snacks from his room along with a few necessities, and inwardly groaned at Kevin's eagerness when the Tuatha de Danann all but ran from the rooms with his pack bouncing on his shoulder; yes, that was going to get old very soon.

Still, the couple of Brownies busy in the main kitchen even at that late time of night were eager to please Kevin and rushed about to get them the supplies they would need for what might be a week or two on the Dark Road - as soon as Kevin had told them their destination, the small Fae had blanched and shaken their heads. "No, no eating there for you," the one with her dark brown hair twisted up in braids had said. "We'll give you plenty of food so you don’t have to do that."

"And sweets," Andrew had called out since he hadn't much food from the human world left. "Pack me some sweets."

Kevin had glowered at him for that. "You really should eat better, you-"

"Want to stay here?" Andrew had countered with a hint of a smile.

"... pack him some damn sweets," Kevin told the Brownies with ill grace.

They bowed before they hurried off to do just that, and Andrew put up with Kevin scowling at them until the Brownies returned with their supplies.

At least Kevin's bad mood relented a little when he noticed that Andrew hadn't packed that many clothes when it came time to shove the food into their packs; Andrew had brought along a couple of books to read, change of underwear, toiletries and a couple of t-shirts and that was basically it, other than stuff to eat and drink. "Uhm, don't you need more clothes?"

"There's caches all over the Dark Road, hence why we're going there. No point in carrying it around when I can grab clothes there," Andrew explained. Might be a bit old fashioned, but it was better quality stuff than he had here.

"Huh." Kevin hefted his pack back onto his right shoulder while he considered something, then shook his head. "I can always swap things out when we get there. Now let's go."

Someone was going to be just fine as the Seelie heir - that was, if they didn't get their head caved in before then for being an annoying shit. Brows drawn together as he envisioned bringing his staff down on that head, Andrew followed Kevin out into the gardens so he could collect the other major pain in his ass just then.

Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find Renee out there by the soaking pools, dressed in a cream colored robe embroidered with what looked to be pink and yellow lotus flowers and hair a tangled mess. She gave him and Kevin a tired smile. "Good morning."

"Barely," Andrew said as he glanced between her and Neil, who stood nearby with wet hair dripping onto his clean clothes, free of pixie dust for once and surrounded just by Ombré and Nuit. "What are you doing here?"

"I sensed blood in the water and came to check on things." Renee motioned to one of the pools behind her. "Neil told me that you're going to the Dark Road so I wish you a safe journey, all of you."

"Whatever." Andrew checked Neil out once more. "You ready to go?"

"Yes." Neil smiled at him, all traces of darkness and that eerie otherness from earlier gone as he held out his right hand without any hesitation so Andrew could entwine their fingers together.

Kevin glanced back and forth between the two of them as if waiting for something, and was quick to latch on to Andrew's left elbow after handing him another stone to serve as an anchor to tie the two of them together. Once they all had a hold on each other, Neil's magic pulled them through the shadows and onto the Dark Road.

As before, Neil laughed in joy at finding himself in the dark realm while the mutts yipped and barked, the rest of the pack already there and waiting for them. Kevin eyed the shadow wolves with trepidation as he edged closer to Andrew, his right hand hovering near the hilt of his sword, while Neil dropped to his knees so the mutts could lick his face.

Andrew allowed him a minute or two of that nonsense before he clicked his tongue. "Enough, I didn't come here to watch you be slobbered on."

/ _Not-truth_./

"Yeah, yeah," Neil muttered as he stood up and wiped at his face with the sleeve of his dark blue tunic. "I'm surprised you came at all."

"Don't give him a reason to change his mind," Kevin argued as he hitched his pack a little higher. "Now where's the ring?"

Neil shoved back the wet curls - more like waves with the weight dragging them down - off of his forehead. "Like that's not getting annoying." He frowned as he glanced around for a moment before he nodded and set off with the wolves bouncing around him.

"About time!" Kevin was quick to follow, his expression determined and steps hurried, so he was beside Neil - as much as the wolves allowed - within a few seconds. "How far away is it?"

"It's... well, distance is odd here, but it'll probably take us a couple of days to get there." Neil glanced over his shoulder at Andrew, who finally deigned to follow along. "Especially since _someone_ complains about our usual pace."

"I don't do running," Andrew stated in a flat tone. "There's no point to it." That's why he had his knives and his staff and his magic, after all, to beat down anything that would make him want to run away.

“Of course you don’t,” Kevin scoffed. “It’s healthy for you, why would you do such a thing?”

“So is a sparring session, do you want to get into one right now?” Andrew asked as he raised his staff in an ominous manner.

“Might be worth it to see you _do_ something for once,” Kevin muttered, then he shook his head when Andrew’s eyes narrowed. “Never mind! Let’s focus on getting to the ring.”

Meanwhile, Neil had continued onward in a half-walk, half-jog while murmuring to the mutts in old Fae; Andrew frowned at that and glanced over at Kevin. “What the hell is he saying?”

“Uhm….” Kevin winced as he picked up the pace as well. “Something about ‘yes, he’s a spring-born ass, they both are.” When Andrew continued to frown at him, Kevin managed a leery smile. “It… loses something in the translation.”

/ _Not-truth_./

“Oh, I’m pretty certain the meaning gets through loud and clear.” Wishing he had the spirits around him just then, Andrew did some running after all to catch up with a certain idiot, shoving a few wolves aside in the process, and almost tapped Neil on the shoulder with his staff before he remembered about the iron tips in time. Instead, he knocked an elbow into the bastard’s back. “I wasn’t born in the spring.”

“That doesn’t make you any less of a fool,” Neil declared as he glanced over his shoulder to give Andrew a dirty look, his eyes mostly black once more due to the dim light of the Dark Road.

“Better a fool than an idiot.” Oh wonderful, now Andrew even sounded like one.

“What does that even mean?” Neil asked as exasperation flowed over the bond. “And why bring me here if you won’t let me run?”

“No. Too many people saw you at the High Court and know you’re tied to here,” Andrew argued. “They’ve probably figured out that you need to come back from time to time like the Moriyamas did so you stay close.”

“He’s right,” Kevin agreed, for once being of some use. “I’ll be surprised if we don’t come across someone else while we’re here.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Neil said as he came to a halt. “There’s nobody-“ He paused when one of the wolves bit into the full left sleeve of his tunic and gave it a shake. “What?” Brow furrowed as surprise and then resignation filled him and Andrew. “Really?” Another wolf gave a short, high-pitched bark. “But I’ll be fine as long as you’re around.”

Andrew wasn’t going to trust the idiot to a bunch of mutts, magical or not. “Let’s try this – you run and I’ll fucking hobble you.” That’s what they did to horses, right? Tied something around their legs to keep them from wandering off? When Neil took to cursing him out in old Fae, Andrew tapped the staff against his own shoulder. “Add a muzzle to it, too.”

Off to his left side, Kevin gave a low groan. “Okay, I’m trying to figure out if this is some weird sort of flirting. _Is_ it flirting?” He glanced back and forth between Andrew and a now blushing, flustered Neil. “I’m very uncomfortable with it being flirting.”

/ _Truth. Truth_./

Someone thought they were so amusing. Andrew gazed at him for a couple of seconds before he clicked his tongue. “Shall we start talking about Jean now?”

Kevin’s green eyes went wide before they narrowed in evident anger and he stomped over as close to Neil as he could and started talking in old Fae to the idiot, his words choppy and harsh despite the usually fluid flow of the ancient language. At first Neil was prickly and on guard, probably because of the proposed topic, and then he began to relax and became amused.

Left with the distinct feeling that he was being talked about just then, and in an unflattering manner at that ( _truth_ ), Andrew allowed the two idiots their fun as they made their way along the black path winding its way along the Dark Road as the twilight realm gradually became slightly less… dark. What felt to be a couple hours passed, during which time Neil’s emotions became more contemplative and Kevin’s tone more curious and pressing, until Andrew produced a sharp whistling sound.

As if reminded of his presence, Neil and Kevin twisted about to look back at him. “Time for a break,” he declared.

It appeared as if Kevin wanted to argue with him, but the mutts were already yipping as they ran off of the road with Neil nodding as he followed after them. “There should be some water not too far from here.”

“How do you know that? Can you sense it?” Kevin asked as he hurried after the idiot.

“No, I just spent how much time here,” Neil answered as something akin to exasperation shaded his voice. He turned to glance at Andrew. “How long are we stopping?”

“However long I want.” Andrew felt some satisfaction at the frustration that flowed into him. “Some of us didn’t get much sleep, after all.”

“Some of you are assholes, after all.”

Andrew arched an eyebrow at that while Kevin took to muttering beneath his breath again, but nothing was said allowed until they reached the banks of a small stream – fresh water only Neil and the mutts could enjoy, other than Andrew and Kevin carefully soaking some cloths to wipe at their faces and neck before they drank from the canteens they’d brought with them. Then they sat down so the two of them could eat a couple of the egg and sausage pasties that the Brownies had packed for them while Neil watched on.

“There’s some trees ahead where I can pick something to eat, and I can catch fish at our next stop,” he explained when Kevin expressed concern at his lack of food; Andrew could feel how Neil wasn’t bothered so knew it was all right.

Kevin stared at the remains of the pasty in his left hand and shook his head. “I still can’t understand how you’re fine with only being able to eat what’s here.”

Neil rolled his eyes at that. “And I don’t understand why everyone thinks it’s such a big deal – it’s just food. As long as I can eat something, I’m fine.”

“The two of you… one eats nothing but junk and one is stupid enough to ruin himself for anything but magic food,” Kevin said with much disdain.

Neil was quiet for a moment before he smiled, the expression too bright to be trusted. “Oh, what do you know, I’ve suddenly forgotten where that ring is, there’s so many caches up here, after all.”

“Hey!” Kevin glared at him but all Neil did was continue to smile, so the coward looked at Andrew as if expecting help. All Andrew did was shrug before stretching out to lie down. “You’re not going to let him get away with that, are you?”

“Not like I know where the hell the thing is,” Andrew said before closing his eyes. “Besides, all that junk food makes me useless.”

“Oberon’s blood, the two of you.” Kevin sounded ready to cast curses, he was so frustrated. “No wonder you to get along so well.”

“Don’t know about that,” Neil mumbled while Andrew scoffed.

“Just shut up and get some sleep, maybe you won’t be so miserable in a bit,” Kevin told them.

Andrew gave him the finger while Neil spat out something vicious sounding in French, but since Andrew was tired, he decided to take a short nap to catch up on the rest which Neil had interrupted with his crazy running around.

Since it was impossible to tell time on the Dark Road, Andrew didn’t know how long he’d slept, but he felt better when he woke up while Kevin still slept a short distance away and Neil sat surrounded by several of the shadow wolves closer to the stream. Andrew got up to walk over to the idiot since he didn’t want to wake up Kevin and sat down next to him, and told himself that he didn’t feel anything when Neil smiled at him.

“What were you two talking about earlier?” he asked as he dusted off his hands.

“Hmm? Me and Kevin?” Neil cocked his head to the side, his emotions calm and content. “Well, we spent a little while complaining about you, which was fun.” He laughed when Andrew shoved his hand in the bastard’s face. “Very educational.” Nuit ‘smiled’ when Neil was pushed onto his side. “Aw, you know you deserved it.”

“I certainly don’t deserve being inflicted with you,” Andrew complained while he fished out his cigarettes. “I’m surprised you only spent ‘a little time’ bitching.”

“Hmm, well, Kevin had a lot of questions to ask about the Dark Road. We can always bitch about you another time.” Neil smiled some more as he sat back up, his happiness a foreign lightness inside of Andrew.

/ _Truth_./

Perhaps Andrew could find a tree to bury the damn torc beneath before he left the Dark Road.

“Is it a pureblood thing where you think you’re amusing where instead you’re just pathetic?” he asked.

“Maybe.” Neil continued to smile as he stared at the gently flowing stream. “You know, I always feel so at peace here, much better than anywhere in the Fae realm or the mortal world.” His smile slipped a little as he took to rubbing his left fingers along the gauntlet. “Then again, I only really knew Baiting’s End and Evermore, so….”

/ _Truth_./

That was something that Andrew had wondered about, why Neil had never mentioned his mother’s knowe. “You never went to Night’s Haven?”

“No.” Sadness twisted at Andrew while Neil shook his head. “I don’t know if my father forbade my mother to go there with me or what, but she never took me there and since he had gone there with her before I was born, he knew the knowe, knew it well enough that he could have left spells which would have made it easier for him to break the wards if she tried to hide there with me when we ran. It wasn’t worth the risk,” he explained, “much like Shadow’s Edge.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew thought about that, about having something so valuable and being too afraid of using it. Then something occurred to him. “Does that mean that Kevin has a knowe, too?”

Neil laughed at that as some of his good mood was restored. “You mean you didn’t know? Kayleigh Day found an unclaimed one in Ireland named Coomlea – the Grey Hollow. Though I’m sure he didn’t run to it for much the same reason I haven’t gone to my mother’s, which is that Tetsuji’s spent time there.”

“There has to be a way to ward the bastards out,” Andrew said as he finally lit a cigarette.

“Probably, but it would take time and effort.” Neil tucked back a strand of hair falling onto his face and shrugged. “We would need help with that, not to mention someone to guard the place while the new wards are built up.”

So it was doable, but not something Neil and his mother could have done while on the run, and not something Kevin could have done at first when fleeing from Evermore. But now? Stuart had offered to support Neil, and Andrew didn’t think Wymack would refuse either of the young Fae, especially Kevin, whom he seemed to favor out of fondness for the Tuatha de Danann’s dead mother.

Yet neither of them seemed in any hurry to reclaim those parts of their heritage. “You purebloods are stupid,” Andrew commented before he drew in a long drag of smoke.

“As you’ve remarked before, too much inbreeding, I’m sure.” Neil bent his knees so he could fold his arms on top of them and rest his chin on top. “Good thing we have you changelings around to help us out.”

For that, the idiot got ash flicked on him.

It wasn’t like Andrew enjoyed hearing Neil laugh or seeing him smile or feeling that blend of happiness/contentment/amusement wash into him.

/ _Not-truth_./

“Think we can convince Kevin that this stupid torc is really the ring?” he asked through gritted teeth, which made Neil give him a mocking smile.

Andrew had finished the cigarette and the two of them sat in a comfortable silence when Kevin finally deigned to wake up, and of course the coward was in a hurry to go after that damn piece of jewelry. Since Neil hadn’t eaten in a while, Andrew humored the asshole, but he still didn’t let Neil run.

Neil got more of his fruit soon enough and they stopped a while after that, a chance to eat what felt like to be lunch and listen to Neil and Kevin debate the creation of portals, before they resumed walking again. It was a little boring and more exercise than Andrew preferred, but at the same time… it wasn’t too bad, the time spent with the other two Fae. Kevin was in a good mood for once, happy to be doing something he felt was productive and dealing with a Neil who wasn’t being so evasive, who actually answered most of his questions, dealing with someone who knew so much about curses and the history about the Fae (at least on the Unseelie side and up to a century or so ago). The rest of the Foxes weren’t as willing to indulge Kevin as Neil currently was doing – the rest of the Foxes, Allison aside, didn’t have the same background as the two.

While Matt, Dan and Renee were purebloods as well, their lineage was comprised of ‘lesser’ Fae – Ifrit on Matt’s mother side while Dan and Renee had no ‘greater’ Fae in them. Even Allison’s bloodline wasn’t as prestigious as Neil’s (especially half of it), and Kayleigh Day was revered among the Fae. Add to that the fact that the two young Fae had been trained since a young age to fight both magically and physically, been raised to deal with the harsh realities of the Fae courts, and there was a commonality between them that was lacking in the rest of the Foxes.

A commonality that not even Andrew could touch, being a proper ‘changeling’. He felt a bitter pang in his chest for a moment at that thought… but then Neil broke off explaining a certain hex to Kevin to look at him, confusion and worry flowing over the bond he shared with Andrew, which didn’t lessen until that pang eased inside of Andrew at the sight of a tremulous smile on that damn attractive face.

“What about you?” Neil asked him as he slowed down enough so Andrew could walk at his right side. “Any favorite jinxes?”

“Why? Want me to cast them on you?” Andrew offered, which made Neil’s smile strengthen.

“Hmm, no, not quite volunteering myself, though I know one or two people if you do want some victims.”

Andrew suspected he might know their names. “You’re no fun.”

Neil hummed at that while Kevin shook his head. “It wouldn’t hurt you to practice your hexing a bit more, you know. They’re not major spells, but sometimes little-“ His frown deepened when Neil held up his hand. “What?”

“Yes, what?” Andrew asked, his voice pitched lower since he noticed the sudden tension in Neil, noticed that some of the wolves had vanished.

“There’s a portal up ahead,” Neil whispered. “And the pack has picked up on something.”

/ _Truth_./

“How can-“ Kevin appeared affronted when Andrew grabbed onto his shirt and yanked him forward, but got the hint to shut up. He also reached into his pocket with his left hand to pull out some charmed stones while his right hand settled on his sword hilt after dropping his pack to the ground – Andrew did the same with his pack, while Neil went for the knife on his left thigh, the gauntlet once more spread out to cover his entire right arm.

They took a few steps forward with Nuit, Ombré and the remaining shadow wolves fanned out around them, Neil tucked between Andrew and Kevin, when all of a sudden there was a brilliant flare of light. Neil let out a pained cry, a sound echoed in the loud yips of the wolves, and then several Fae dressed in dark purple and light yellow rushed the three of them.

Andrew didn’t hesitate to draw energy from the ground beneath him even as he let loose the curse he’d readied moments before, and felt a grim sense of satisfaction as one of their attackers twisted about as if caught up in a sudden whirlwind as their tendons shrunk (Aaron might be an asshole, but he had good ideas when it came to curses). He didn’t waste any time on gloating, though, not when there were more people to take down, not when it was clear what (who) they wanted, when the damn light spell had affected Neil and the wolves.

Well, _had_ affected the wolves. It had slowed them down a little, but now they were pissed off and not about to let anything harm their precious ‘king’, who was still kneeling on the ground and cursing in old Fae as pain and anger echoed over the bond.

Unlike the last time when Andrew and Kevin had come to the Dark Road together, the coward was tearing through the unknown knights with a singular focus, was using both his magic and sword to fight so Andrew turned his attention on the Gwyllion trying to sever his spine. He knocked aside the broadsword then used the tip of the staff to jab hard into the prick’s sternum to disrupt whatever spell he was about to cast before jabbing it even harder into their throat to crush their airway, and brought it down on their skull to finish the job.

The sound of a choked off scream behind him and that weird rush of energy similar to one during the night let him know that someone, somehow, had got past him and Kevin and the mutts, but when he spun around he saw Neil looming over a body with his right hand – arm once more covered with the growth of shiny spikes like a wild rosebush missing the fragrant blooms and leaves – wrapped around a limp arm which he dropped as the scent of primroses and fallow leaves faded away. Neil’s eyes were a pure icy blue, the pupils retracted into such thin slits that Andrew couldn’t see them from that far away, his exposed skin flushed as if sunburned and lean body trembling as if in shock.

A quick glance around convinced Andrew that whoever the bastards _were_ , that they were either all dead or gone so he lowered his staff and slowly approached Neil. “Can you see anything?”

Neil jerked at the question as he gave a slight shake of his head. “Not… not much,” he admitted as the anger gave way to anxiety. Andrew dropped the staff and knelt in front of his idiot, his motions slow, and reached out to grasp Neil’s face between his hands. The flush slowly faded away but Neil’s eyes remained the same.

“I’ve never seen a light spell like that, it was clearly targeted to affect him and his ability to shadow walk,” Kevin said as he approached as well. “Should we go back?”

“Neil?”

“I… the pain’s a bit less, so I think it’ll get better soon.” Neil blinked a few times as he tilted his face so his left cheek rested more firmly against Andrew’s right hand. “I don’t want to leave the Dark Road right now.”

/ _Truth_./

He didn’t want to leave the place where he felt safest, in other words, and Andrew couldn’t blame him. “I get to walk you into trees, so fun for me.”

That earned him a smile and a wave of relief even as Neil mumbled what Andrew had come to believe was ‘bastard’ in old Fae, while Ombré and Danseur sidled close enough to rub against the idiot; the wolves’ hackles were on end and the pack appeared jumpy even as they fed on the dead Fae, so Andrew suspected that the light spell had bothered them, too.

“Who were they?” he asked Kevin.

“Beecham Grove, Morley Tyrone’s knowe,” the walking encyclopedia of all things Fae answered. “They weren’t at the High Court but I’m sure word spread quickly.” He hesitated for a moment as he used a cloth to wipe clean his sword. “Tyrone’s helped Tetsuji out a time or two.”

“Imagine that.” Andrew allowed himself a moment longer to drink in the trust Neil had for him before he forced his hands aside and stood up. “Come on, if you’re stupid enough to trigger that spell then you need to start walking into those trees right now.”

Neil sighed as he latched on to Ombré to help him stand. “Seriously, I don’t understand why you can’t bite him a little for me,” he told the she-wolf. “A few missing chunks, that’s all I’m asking.”

She gave a happy little yip and nudged him into Andrew, who narrowed his eyes at the mutt even as he wrapped his fingers around Neil’s now spike-free right arm. “So much fucking trouble,” Andrew complained. “Why do I bother?”

For a moment Neil’s expression took a sad turned, and then a small but genuine smile tugged at his lips. “It’s appreciated.”

That was perilously close to a ‘thank you’, enough so that Andrew blinked in surprise even as gratitude flowed across the link and his fingers tightened on Neil’s arms. Meanwhile, Kevin heaved a weary sigh.

“Are you still going to be able to lead us to the ring like that? I don’t want us to get lost or anything.”

Neil’s too-blue eyes grew heavy-lidded with annoyance as he more or less gazed in the coward’s general direction. “Can I have the wolves eat _him_?” he asked Andrew.

“Unfortunately, we’d have to put up with a lot of bitching from Wymack if they did,” Andrew reminded him while Kevin took to bitching himself.

“Right.” Neil wasn’t too happy about that, either, though he focused on walking without tripping too often until his eyesight returned to normal so they could put as much as much distance between them and the portal as possible without having to stop. If Neil didn’t seem in any hurry to let Andrew know when it had been fully restored and Andrew to let go of the idiot’s arm… well, nothing was said.

Unused to traveling on their feet all day, Kevin and Andrew were tired when Neil declared them to have reached a good spot for the ‘night’, far enough away from any portals yet near water so they could clean up a little before going to sleep. There were also some trees so Neil could eat that night, with him declaring that he’d catch some fish in the morning.

Kevin watched on in interest when Neil and a couple of the wolves dug up an old cache so he could have some clean clothes to change into, and examined each item with care. “This is… I can’t believe how old some of this is, and how it’s still in such good shape. Did you find any spells cast on the caches?”

“Nothing,” Neil said as he went through for things which would fit him – well, which weren’t too big for him, when it came to things like shirts, tunics and jerkins. He was a bit more mindful with the bottoms, but probably just so they didn’t fall off.  For himself, Andrew managed to get another pair of leather boots and a nice sweater, while Kevin couldn’t resist a ridiculous black tunic with too many straps.

The coward paid more attention to the bag of jewels, but seemed disappointed when it didn’t turn up anything like the gauntlet or torc. “Several of them are charmed, but I can do better,” he said in a haughty manner.

“We made good time despite the fight,” Neil told them as he set everything they didn’t want back in the ground – more like _because_ of the fight – “so we should reach it tomorrow.” They sat near each other beneath a large… well, Andrew wasn’t certain what the hell type of tree it was, just that it was tall and black and had sharp-edged leaves.

Something flashed in Kevin’s eyes upon hearing that, something bright with need, yet all he did was nod once before gathering his new tunic and going off to where he left his pack so he could get what he needed to wash up for the night. Neil watched him for a moment with a puzzled expression before he looked at Andrew. “Do you think he knows?”

“It’s hard to tell,” Andrew confessed. “He’s obsessed, but I don’t think he’s used to thinking of himself like that.” Of being the one to deserve such things after living so long in Riko’s shadow. Despite all of Kevin’s vast intelligence, he might not have put all of the pieces together just yet. “He just knows he’s driven to find it.”

“Well, soon enough he’ll figure it out.” Neil paused while Danseur pounced on the mound of dirt in front of him. “Hopefully he’ll do a better job than the last person who wore it.”

“Even Kevin has a way to go before he reaches Titania’s level of bitchiness.” Andrew watched as Neil smiled at that, as amusement which wasn’t his own bubbled up inside of him. “Come on, time to wash the stink off of you and then get some rest, I can feel how tired you are.”

“As much as I don’t like it, my father’s talent helps somewhat, it did with that awful light spell and everything,” Neil said as he rubbed at his now (mostly) normal eyes.

So would getting some rest, especially since the idiot had been up during the night before doing stupid shit for the pixies and Andrew didn’t think he’d napped earlier. “Wash and then sleep, me and the mutts will take first watch.”

“The wolves can-“

“ _We’ll_ take first watch.” Andrew wasn’t going to sleep easy when he knew that people were hoping to get their hands on Neil, not after everything that had happened at the High Court, not when both Kevin and the idiot were here. He’d let Neil sleep that ‘night’ and have Kevin take the second half of the watch, and as long as nothing bad happened during the ‘day’, the three of them could swap out the next night – that was, if they were still here. Perhaps they could leave the Dark Road after they got the ring and have Dan bring them back through the trees or Kevin teleport them to the knowe.

“You worry too much,” Neil told him as he shook his head.

/ _Truth_./

“And you worry not enough,” Andrew shot back.

“The wolves will keep us safe.”

Except those Fae had tried to take the wolves out, even if it hadn’t worked that way; too many people knew now that the shadow wolves were there to protect Neil, and they’d have to get through the mutts to get _him_. Andrew didn’t want to rely on the creatures too much.

He wondered if his emotions had given him away somehow because Neil’s expression became almost wistful and emotions an odd mix of sadness and want as he raised his hand as if to reach out then stopped. “One of these days you’re going to have to stop worrying about everyone else and take care of yourself for once.”

Andrew scoffed at that as he reached for the idiot’s face. “Who said anything about worrying? I’m just trying to keep you from causing me too much work.” When Neil gave him another tremulous smile at that, he leaned forward as a certain impulse suddenly became too much. “Yes or no?”

“Yes,” Neil breathed out right before Andrew’s hand cupped his left cheek, as the smile strengthened, and he leaned forward, too. At first Andrew allowed himself a moment to drink in the joy and want he felt over their bond, the smoothness of Neil’s skin and softness of his hair, and then he bridged the distance between them as his lips pressed against Neil’s.

If he had sensed panic or distaste or fear or anything like that (he half-expected it, to be honest), he would have pulled away, but after the initial flash of surprise, there was delight and desire and a bit of confusion. The last emotion became evident when Neil didn’t seem to know what to do, reminding Andrew what the shadow walker had said about never having kissed before, so Andrew didn’t push too much past a lazy, shallow sweep of the tongue once Neil parted his lips. A slight gasp escaped Neil when Andrew trailed his mouth along the idiot’s jaw, the sound shifting into a low moan when he reached Neil’s right earlobe and decided to give it a gentle nibble.

He was shoved away a moment later as Neil let out a loud yelp, but judging from the sharp spike of pleasure that had flooded into Andrew upon that action and the bright red flush to the idiot’s face (and ears), it wasn’t all bad. “Oooh shadows,” Neil moaned as he held trembling hands to his face, for once swearing in English as embarrassment was added to the mixture of pleasure and want.

“Oops?” Andrew said as he wiped at his lips; there wasn’t any fear so he didn’t think he’d messed up too bad and should leave – that and the shadow wolves were calm.

Neil stared at him in disbelief for a moment and then laughed as he lowered his hands. “You… that….” He went to rub at his ears and then seemed to think better of it as he hiccupped. “Uhm… maybe?” His embarrassment grew stronger for a moment as curiosity joined in as well. “Uhm, is that… is it normal?”

“Not quite like that, no,” Andrew said with a slight shrug. “But then again, yours are a bit unique.”

“Yeah.” Neil sighed as he gave a light touch to the tip of his right ear while his emotions took on a dark turn. “They… well, at Evermore,” he tried to explain in a quiet voice. “They noticed an easy way to hurt me was by grabbing them.”

/ _Truth._ /

Suddenly, Andrew didn’t feel very amorous anymore, and when Neil’s expression grew closed off, he shook his head. “It’s not you,” he said as he held out his hand. “I just have an urge to kill most of the people at Evermore.”

“Ah.” Neil was happier upon hearing that and accepted the hand to help him onto his feet. “So, uhm, I didn’t mean to, you know.” He motioned with his left hand to his ear.

/ _Truth_./

“We’ll work on it.” Internally, Andrew frowned at that and what it implied, that they would keep doing such things, but Neil’s smile strengthened and he was pleased by it, so Andrew didn’t argue as they went to get what they needed so they could clean up before bed.

He warned Kevin when they returned that the Tuatha de Danann would have second watch, and was somewhat surprised to not receive any complaints. It didn’t take Neil long to fall asleep once surrounded by a bunch of wolves, and Andrew took some comfort in the fact that he didn’t sense any nightmares from his… whatever. Friend. Fellow heir. Idiot. Pain in the ass.

/ _Truth and not-truth_./

When he felt too tired to maintain a proper watch, Andrew woke up Kevin, who gave him a quiet nod and sat with his sword unsheathed on his lap while Andrew stretched out near the pile of shadow wolves and shadow walker, and didn’t wake up until he had a heavy paw pressed onto his chest at some point in the ‘morning’. He would have cast a curse at the damn mutt (Pilier), except spells didn’t work on the wolves – judging from the amusement washing into him, he had a certain idiot to thank for his unique wake-up alarm.

By way of pay-back, he kicked Neil’s feet out from under him when they were washing up that morning, and didn’t need the way those blue eyes lingered on his chest or the warmth of desire that filled him as he maybe lingered a bit too long on his own ‘bath’.

While it was reassuring in one sense, knowing that someone wanted him, it was also painful as hell to feel it and be unable to do much about it when surrounded by a pack of shadow wolves and a grouchy Tuatha de Danann as ever-present chaperones.

Especially when Kevin pulled him aside at one point during the day while Neil went up a tree to get some fruit. “You do know there’s proper ways to go about courting a pureblood like him, don’t you?” Blatant disapproval radiated off of Kevin as he frowned down upon Andrew. “Discounting the whole outrageous dance thing you did, there’s gifts and approaching Stuart and don’t get me started on the timeline. You’re not doing _anything_ right here. There’s _protocols_ , dammit! _Tradition_!” Kevin made it sound like Andrew was stomping on kittens or something equally horrible.

“How about I start by offering him your spleen?” Andrew asked as he slipped free a knife. “Is that traditional enough?”

“I’m trying to help you,” Kevin hissed as he took a hasty step back. “Ignorance isn’t an excuse.”

“How are things coming along with Jean, hmm? You going to start courting _him_ anytime soon?” Andrew felt a bit of cruel amusement at how Kevin’s face flushed upon hearing that. “Or are you going with Knox instead? Always thought you were a bit sweet with him.” Now Kevin looked ready to pass out.

“I… that’s… I don’t….” He threw his hands up in the air and stalked off in the direction which Neil had been leading them for the past day and a half, or whatever since it was the Dark Road, after all.

That was around when Neil rejoined Andrew while munching on a piece of fruit, a few more tucked into the crook of his left arm. “Any particular reason to torture Kevin now?” he asked after a couple of bites.

“It’s fun.”

“Ah.” Neil had another bite. “Wait until I can watch next time?”

“No promises.” He told himself the amusement and contentment he felt were nothing, that he’s just relieved that there’s no fear or remorse or regret after what had happened the night before. That he wasn’t waiting for something bad to happen after taking that (most likely) ill-advised next step forward – even if he’s not quite sure what they’re moving _toward_.

/ _Not-truth_./

The one thing he _is_ certain about is why Oberon left the fucking torc behind.

He noticed that the damn thing didn’t have much to say about _that_.

Most of the shadow wolves vanished at one point, which made Neil grow pensive and put Andrew on edge, but they returned a short while later radiating a smugness even Andrew could read while Neil’s pensiveness grew. When they paused for a break a short distance away from the cache and Kevin all but thrummed with eagerness and annoyance, Andrew gave the idiot a light smack on the back of his head. “What did you expect?”

“This is… this place is a part of me,” Neil said in a hoarse voice as he hugged Ombré close. “I don’t want to feel as if it’s being taken from me.”

Andrew refused to feel any guilt about doing just that because of the geas and the damn bond. “Make them bleed enough for stepping on the Dark Road and they’ll leave you alone,” he advised.

Neil was quiet for several heartbeats then smiled. “Okay.”

“There’s no ‘okay’, I’m right like always.”

/ _Not-truth_./

The idiot ducked his head as the pensiveness gave away to glee. “So much ego for such a short body.”

“Look who’s talking.” Andrew gave him another smack for that, which got him a head-butt from Nuit and Kevin yelling at them to hurry up and get off their asses.

“What did you say about Titania’s level of bitchiness?” Neil murmured as he stood up. “And always being right?”

Andrew shoved him forward for that bit of nonsense.

It was getting around time for them to stop for the day when Neil indicated that they were close to the cache, which put Andrew on alert to make sure that they weren’t being followed or walking into a trap; he glanced over at Nuit and after a bright ‘smile’, the shadow wolf gave a low bark that made the pack fan out. Andrew figured that with the Moriyamas and much of the Fae were eager to get their hands on the remaining piece of jewelry, that there was something in Wesninski’s warning about the three of them not being the only heirs out there, and didn’t want any surprises.

Neil gave him a considering look at that but didn’t say anything while Kevin was determined to get his hands on the ring, and wasn’t happy about them slowing down for the last little bit. However, not all of the wolves returned as they approached the grove of trees with a small stone cairn in the middle.

“That’s it,” Neil said as he glanced around with his right hand held up to hold back Kevin and Andrew. While Kevin glared at him, he muttered a guttural spell while the scent of his magic flared, and only after nothing happen did he nod before he stepped forward. “Okay.”

Ombré and Danseur ran ahead as if checking things out and barked when they reached the cairn, and pawed at the stones to start knocking them aside. Kevin and Neil joined in while Andrew stood off to the side on guard, and soon enough several leather bags were revealed; the ones containing clothes were ignored at the moment in favor of the smaller ones. “We can just take them with us,” Kevin argued. “It’s probably best to leave here once we get the ring.”

Neil didn’t appear happy with that, but Andrew nodded. “We can come back in a week or two, once word gets out that the ring’s been claimed,” he offered. When there was one less reason for people to want to get their hands on Neil.

“All right.” Neil set one of the bags down by Andrew’s feet and unearthed a small drawstring bag, his emotions unsettled as he held it in his left hand while the gauntlet extended along his right arm. “This should be it,” he told Kevin.

The Tuatha de Danann stared at the bag with evident hunger for a moment. “Ah, okay.” His hands trembled as he accepted it. “I guess we should make sure before we leave,” he said as if rationalizing things to himself.

“Yeah.” Neil grabbed the remaining items in the cairn then stepped closer to Andrew as if unwilling to be near the ring, the gauntlet spiky once more. Andrew allowed him near as he wrapped both hands around his staff and leaned against it a little while he watched Kevin slid the ring from the pale gold velvet bag.

The rose gold glinted even in the dim twilight of the Dark Road, a soft burnished glow offset from the gleam of inner fire of the large square-cut emerald which had to be a few carats at least. It was a relatively simple ring, was just rose gold and emerald, but there was some engraving in the gold, was what looked to be blooming foxglove around the band.

“Oberon’s blood,” Kevin breathed out. “It’s Titania’s ring.” He held it up for a moment before shaking his head. “We have to take it back and find-“ His eyes – the exact same shade of green as the gem in his left hand – went wide as the ring, currently sized for a woman’s a slender finger – glowed bright and expanded, grew big enough to fit a man’s finger.

Big enough to fit a certain coward’s finger.

“That’s….” Kevin broke into a mix of old Fae, French, Gaelic and _Japanese_ , a sure sign that something had just broken in him. Andrew watched on with growing boredom until Nuit yawned.

“Put the damn thing on,” he called out. “And I hope it gives you a headache with its ceaseless prattling.” That earned him some amusement from Neil and a warm pulse from the torc.

“But… but it can’t be for _me_ ,” Kevin said, finally ending his useless babbling.

“Kevin… you were about the only person not to expect this,” Neil said with a weary sign. “Put it on before my father shows up, okay?”

/ _Truth_./

“Ah… all right.” Kevin’s eyes were still wide as he slipped on the ring, as if expecting something bad to happen, and somehow grew even wider as it settled on his finger. That same moment, Andrew felt another warm pulse from the torc and puzzlement from Neil, who glanced down at the gauntlet. “Ooh… oh hell, this means… this means _we’re_ the Three now.”

“It means we all have some fancy jewelry now, nothing more than that,” Andrew told the coward.

“But Neil and-“

“Nobody’s making me do anything I don’t want,” Andrew warned while Neil grew uncomfortable. “That includes leading a bunch of stupid Fae.”

“I’m having enough trouble with the pixies,” Neil mumbled as he poked at the gauntlet. “I just want to be left alone.”

Kevin looked at the two of them with blatant disappointment. “But there’s a reason for all of _this_ ,” he said while holding up his left hand. “We have to do something!”

“ _We_ don’t have to do anything.” Andrew nudged Neil in the side with his left elbow. “Pick up whatever shit you don’t want to leave behind.”

“Of course I’m stuck with it.” Neil pouted as he bent down to grab some of the bags. “Where are we going?”

“What’s closest?” Andrew slid the staff through a strap of one of the bags just to stop the bitching.

“Uhm… a small city and a knowe – think it’s the Dancing Wind knowe,” Neil said after standing there for a moment with his eyes closed.

Kevin gave a quick shake of his head as he grabbed the rest of the bags while radiating evident displeasure. “No, they’re closely aligned with the North Central Court, even after everything that’s happened. We can’t risk that they won’t turn on us.”

Neil cursed beneath his breath in old Fae before he gave Andrew an unhappy look. “You didn’t get that potion yet, did you?”

“Nope, Bee’s still working on it.” Andrew let the idiot get a few more curses out of his system before he held out his hand. “Time to go.”

Neil took the opportunity to shove a bag into Andrew’s arms before he accepted his hand, and Kevin once more linked their arms together before Neil’s magic pulled them to the mortal world.

******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> Kevin finally got some bling! Took the poor boy long enough. And Andrew dealing with family stuff, always so fun.
> 
> Hmm, I don't know, might start switching in other fics at this point, since it's taking so long to get this wrapped out. There's still the Raven!Neil fic that's sitting out there waiting for a full chapter and the second half of the First Breath and more Dragon!Andrew and Cat!Neil and other things.... I keep hoping for work to slow down and I'm going to be in San Antonia for the con there in a few weeks, down to one owed for at this point, too.
> 
> Anyway, as always, thanks for the comments and kudos!  
> *******


	14. Battlefield

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, this chapter was a little difficult to write (there was a lot of stop and starts) so hopefully it flows all right and makes sense. 
> 
> We're getting closer to the end - there's still a few chapters left, but we're getting there (finally). 
> 
> Don't think there's any new warnings for this chapter. It's a lot of Andrew and Aaron stuff.  
> *******

*******

Andrew felt a terrible wrenching inside of him once they ‘arrived’ in the human world, followed by a sense of growing sickness over the bond he shared with Neil – Neil, who wavered on his feet as he made a choking sound, his eyes tightly shut and skin taking on an ashen shade.

“For fuck’s sake, two seconds!” Andrew gritted out as he dropped the bags draped over his arms to haul Neil closer before the idiot collapsed. “You haven’t even be here for _two_ seconds!” While he spoke, he reached out with his magic to summon the nearest spirits to him, grateful to have that ability, that _weapon_ , available once more.

Neil gasped for air, which didn’t seem to help any, and slumped against Andrew as he murmured something in old Fae while Ombré and Nuit whined and pawed at the litter-covered asphalt. Meanwhile, Kevin glanced around the dark alley they’d appeared in and, after pulling on a glamour which hid his pointed ears, Fae clothes and the sword on his hip, went to look out onto the street nearby. “Uhm, I think we might be in Sioux Falls. The cars have South Dakota plates and it’s the nearest city to the Dancing Wind knowe.”

/ _Truth_./

“Wonderful.” Andrew wrapped his left arm a little tighter around Neil’s waist. “Can you use the shadows here to get us closer to the knowe?”

For a moment Neil was quiet as he rested against Andrew, a solid weight which should bother him, should make him want to shove the idiot away, but Andrew could feel upset and pain over their bond, could feel how Neil took comfort in the support being given and… well, it didn’t bother him. “There’s… some sort of spell,” Neil murmured as he kept his eyes closed and his magic flared. “Something blocking… or is it warding the city?” He opened his eyes to give Andrew a worried frown. “I think _I_ can leave, but I can’t take you and Kevin.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew’s arm tightened around Neil, who didn’t complain about the embrace. “They’re trying to trap us.”

“Yes.” Neil’s teeth bit into his bottom lip as his fingers plucked at Andrew’s shirt. “Maybe if we go back to the Dark Road I can-“

“Get another light spell lobbed at you,” Andrew argued. “I think they’ve been planning things ever since we left the High Court. No, if you do anything, then you go straight to the Foxhole Court.”

Neil glared at him for that. “I’m not leaving you trapped in this city.”

/ _Truth_./

“You can’t even stand up straight on your own here.” Andrew let go of the idiot to prove his point and nodded when Neil wavered and had to clutch at the wolves for support. “See?”

Meanwhile, Kevin came back over to join in the ‘discussion’. “I don’t think we should let him go – it’s like you said, they’ve been planning things for a while, now.” He ignored Andrew’s displeased look and shook his head. “They had that light spell ready for him on the Dark Road, there’s no telling if they have something else in store if he leaves. It’s best that we stick together.”

/ _Truth_./

“I should be fine in the shadows,” Neil said while he shook his head, or at least tried before it made him too dizzy.

“ _Should_. Are you willing to end up in the Moriyamas’ hands again if you’re wrong?”

Andrew almost punched Kevin for asking that since he could feel Neil’s pain and horror at the question, but Kevin didn’t know what all had happened to the shadow walker in Evermore; he settled for glaring while the wolves snarled and growled.

“What about a teleportation spell?” he snapped at the coward while he tugged Neil closer. “And pull on a damn glamour.”

“I… fine,” Neil managed to grit out as he closed his eyes and concentrated enough to mask his ears and probably his eyes, to dull the color of his hair a little.

“It’s not working,” Kevin said after several seconds of concentrating as well, the scent of his magic heavy in the air (which helped to mask the odor of the nearby garbage). “Whatever they’re doing to block Neil from taking us through the shadows is affecting my spell as well. We’re trapped here.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew frowned at that, until Neil shivered and leaned against him in obvious discomfort of the metal dumpster bins nearby, of the concrete and metal buildings looming on either side of them and the cars out on the streets. Neil, who had managed to slip away that time at Eden’s. “We need to get to the nearest park,” Andrew told them as he remembered a way out of the city. “Then we can reach out to Dan and have her fetch us, we’ll figure out how to send a message somehow.”

Kevin perked up at that. “Yes, I doubt they’ll have blocked the trees!” He reached down to pick up some of the bags, which the glamour had turned into camping gear. “Ah, what about the shadow wolves?”

“They’ll be all right,” Neil said in a quiet voice with his eyes closed as if he could block out the world around him that way. “Let’s just go.” The gauntlet had extended to its full length and had gone spiky again, but Neil hadn’t cast a glamour to cover his clothes, just his physical appearance – Andrew wondered if it was too taxing for him to cast that much magic. Kevin gave the shadow walker a worried look before he glanced over at Andrew, who sighed.

Hesitating only a moment, Andrew threaded the fingers of his right hand through soft, curly auburn (well, dull brown) strands and felt a pulse of relief and pleasure from Neil, which he told himself that he couldn’t focus on at the moment. What he needed to do was summon his magic and cast a glamour on the idiot and hope it took, that Neil didn’t reject it, and after forming an image in his mind of Neil in human clothes without a spiky growth of enchanted metal on his arm, he let the magic loose.

There was a bit of tension in the air for a moment, the scents of both of their magic, and then the glamour enveloped Neil who opened his eyes and gave Andrew a slight smile. “I… that will be helpful.” He felt anxious and nauseous and _aching,_ so Andrew had no fucking clue why he’d just smiled.

“Don’t you dare throw up on me,” Andrew warned as he gave a slight tug to Neil’s hair, which for once was free of pixie dust, ridiculous braids and flowers. Pixie dust…. “Hey, the flying pests are in cities, right?” he asked as he stroked his thumb on the warm skin below Neil’s glamoured right ear.

“Ah, yeah.” Neil shivered a little at the touch and the sense of pleasure increased. “Why?”

“Can you call a couple to you?” How did being the Unseelie ‘king’ work? Usually they flocked to Neil in the knowe.

Kevin seemed to pick up on what Andrew was after and grinned in relief. “Yes! They can help us get word to Dan and find the park!”

/ _Truth_./

“Uhm, okay.” Neil was a bit puzzled by that, but for once Andrew didn’t call him out on it since he could feel how being in the mortal world was affecting his friend. Neil leaned in a little before he took a deep breath as if Andrew somehow made breathing in the polluted, rancid air better, and a few seconds later the scent of his magic filled the small alley once again. The shadow wolves made a pleased coughing sound while Neil called out in Pixish, his eyes glowing bright behind the glamour for a moment.

“We can’t wait too long for them to arrive,” Kevin warned even though he had agreed with the plan. “If people are looking for us, they probably will notice the spell.” He rubbed at the ring on his left hand as he glanced at the opening of the alley.

/ _Truth_./

“Just a couple of minutes,” Andrew decided while Neil rested his head on Andrew’s shoulder as if the casting had cost him too much energy; Kevin gave him a pointed look at that, to which Andrew merely gazed back in a bland manner until the coward glanced away first.

It was… it was odd, having someone so close like that, trusting him so much to keep him safe and to provide support. Andrew was used to protecting someone (Aaron, Nicky, Kevin), but he never let them in close like this – they never _wanted_ to be in close like this. Somehow, it was different with Neil, he didn’t know if it was the bond or the heir thing or what (maybe not the latter one, he’d stab Kevin first if the coward tried something like this).

/ _Truth_./

Enough already, Andrew told the annoying piece of shit, even as he curled his fingers around the nape of Neil’s neck and provoked a sleepy yet pleased murmur against his left shoulder.

"Are you going to be able to run?" he asked as he wondered about piggy back rides and how much Neil would owe him for that much fucking effort.

"Yes." Resolve washed into him as Neil pushed away, a little dizzy at first and stomach unhappy, but he stood on his own. "I'll get to the park, I'll be fine."

He was going to be miserable and need some time in Renee's one pool after all of this, and for a moment Andrew almost told him to use the shadows to return to the Foxhole Court, but just then several pixies came rushing in to the alley - pixies and a couple of spirits, which made Andrew feel better even if he was about to be covered with sparkling dust.

Neil smiled at the sight of the flying pests while they gibbered about in that hissing language of theirs, while Kevin relaxed a little even as he remained on guard by the front of the alley. The pixies buzzed about in the air around Neil for several seconds, which made Andrew cough from all of the glittering dust, and then Neil spoke.

"We need to find a park or something with trees large enough for us to contact our dryad friend at the Foxhole Court so she can get us back home." Something flared warm inside of Andrew upon Neil mentioning the Foxhole Court as 'home'. "We need to do it as quickly as possible, since it's likely that people are after us."

One of the pixies hissed at that and landed on Neil's right shoulder (oh, wait until Jorea found out) while motioning and talking to the others; a couple flew off in different directions while a couple remained with them.

"Well?" Andrew asked as Ombré and Nuit seemed to melt into the shadows.

"Olianas and the others will remain with us and tell us where to go, the rest went to carry the message," Neil explained as he attempted to bend down to pick up one of the bags, only for Andrew to give him a narrow look as he snatched it up instead; he'd leave them behind if they didn't contain Fae things, which wasn't a good idea in the human world. No, it wouldn't slow him down much to carry them while running, but Neil had enough problems staying upright as it was.

"Don't be even more of an idiot than normal," he said once the bags were settled on his back, which earned him some displeased hisses from the pests. "I'm not going to carry you, I'm going to drag you along by your hair when you finally pass out."

"No you're not, I'm going to bite into your ankle and make you drag me along that way," Neil muttered after he snapped his teeth and waved his right hand about to indicate for the pixies to show them the way.

"Could you stop flirting already? This is serious." Kevin glared at them from his spot by the exit. “Concentrate, dammit!”

Andrew had one of the new spirits smack him on the back of the head as the pixies, glamoured to look like some sort of small bird (sort of - he was willing to bet the humans didn't pay them much mind) darted ahead.

It was late evening from the looks of it, so the streets were busy with cars driving about and people walking around, which should help them somewhat since no sensible Fae would stage a public attack. No sensible Fae _should_. Then again, the Moriyamas were stretching things by warding them out of the Foxhole Court.

Neil made a low choking sound at being closer to all of the cars, to the metal lamp posts and parking meters and everything else made of steel that lined the streets, all the buildings rising up around him as well. Andrew almost handed over his staff for support before he remembered about the iron tips, and settled for wrapping his left arm around Neil’s waist instead; it earned them a couple of odd looks, but nothing was said to their faces.

More glamoured pixies joined them as they headed to what a spirit told Andrew was a park near the river, but the old woman didn’t have an idea of the distance – spirits might remember certain buildings and people and belongings and could return to them or fetch whatever Andrew focused on, but they didn’t have the best grasp on the world around them. Things like ‘time’ and ‘distance’ tended to get a little fuzzy for them unless Andrew gave them a specific task.

It would have taken too long to have them search for a park and return to him, but he could have the spirits fan out a little bit ahead to see if there were any strange Fae closing in, and after a couple of blocks (during which the shadows wolves flickered in and out of the corner of his eye while Neil’s breathing grew more labored as he forced himself to keep pace with Andrew and Kevin) one of them raced back with a warning.

“Get ready,” Andrew called out as he looked around then dumped Neil onto one of the scraggly trees growing along the side of the street, which provoked a squawk of complaint from the idiot. Next he dropped the bags he’d been carrying at Neil’s feet before swinging his staff about, right around the time that a few ‘cops’ came strolling into view.

“Andrew, don’t do anything… oh.” Kevin blinked a few times, probably as he caught a faint haze around them as they moved quickly in their direction, a tell-tale sign of glamour. “Oh, that can’t be good.” He glanced at the humans who were hurrying to get out of the fake pigs’ way.

/ _Truth_./

“You think?” Andrew stationed himself in front of a swearing Neil, who felt exhausted and sick enough over their bond to make Andrew want to lay down on the sidewalk. “Stay back, dammit.”

“I… I can….”

“You can throw up on their shoes. Leave this to us.” Right about then, the small group of Fae – four of them in total – fanned out in front of them.

“Well, you look like some gentlemen we need to question, so be good and come along now,” the tallest of them said with a too-bright smile on his face as he tapped the fingers of his right hand against his hip where what looked to be a bundle of plastic ties hung – Andrew was willing to bet they were really manacles of some sort, probably enchanted at that. “We don’t want any fuss.”

/ _Not-truth_./

“We don’t want any, either.” Kevin cocked his head to the side as he stared at the Fae. “But you want… ah, you’re Dancing Wind,” he said with a bit of pride. “Beaulieu’s been holding out the promise of his daughter’s hand for the last fifteen decades, do you think he’ll really give it to whoever brings us back?”

/ _Truth_./

The broad-shouldered Fae on the left appeared freaked-out by Kevin’s little guessing game but the dark-skinned fellow on the far right (Andrew surmised that he was probably Unseelie and had more to hide under the glamour than the others) glared. “Shut up and come with us!”

The humans gathered around them were gawking and whispering, which they didn’t need – either the attention or the chance that someone might step in and do something stupid like try to be a hero. A few were glaring in their direction, but the tall Fae waved them aside in a clear ‘stay back’ motion. “You will come with us or we’ll add more charges against you.”

Someone was playing their role like a good little lackey, wasn’t he? “Go ahead and try, we just won against one court,” Andrew reminded the bastard. "Feel like losing, too?"

The Fae's light brown eyes narrowed in apparent anger, which warned Andrew that something was about to happen - something like a large Fae charging straight at him. He swung his staff, glamoured to look like a walking stick, right at the bastard, while Kevin threw a charmed stone at the Unseelie near him. That left the other two Fae, one of which took a few steps forward and then... then seemed to just disappear into the shadows along with a couple of savage growls.

That left the broad-shouldered Fae who darted around Andrew and the tall bastard while holding something in his hands, which made Andrew curse out loud as he had the spirits trip the tall Fae so he could catch him with the tip of his staff beneath the chin. With the bastard stunned by the blow, Andrew brought the staff down with all of his strength - enhanced by the energy he drew from the earth - against the back of the Fae's neck to shatter the fragile bones and the spinal cord they protected. As he felt the slight rush of the man's death, there were shrill shrieks from the pixies as they dashed at remaining Fae and seemed to push him toward Neil.

Furious at the flying pests' actions, Andrew lunged forward to help the idiot, only to stumble when he felt a shock similar to touching a live wire, familiar to the other night when Neil had gone off to deal with the Red Caps. The enemy Fae dropped to the ground to reveal Neil standing there, a gleam of silver peeking through the glamour - silver all along his right arm, his right shoulder and upper chest, even some of his neck.

Silver in his eyes as he stared at Andrew without any expression.

Andrew paused for a moment before he reached out to grab onto Neil's left shoulder, mindful of the restless crowd gathered around them. "Come on, we need to go."

Neil cocked his head to the side at the words but allowed Andrew to pull him along; when someone from the crowd tried to stop them from leaving, a couple of pixies blasted him and the other bystanders with a cloud of pixie dust. As the crowd was left coughing in confusion, half of them either on the ground or barely able to stand, Kevin waved them forward. "We really need to hurry now," he shouted with more than a hint of panic.

/ _Truth_./

Like that wasn't obvious. Andrew didn't say anything, though, he just pulled a too-quiet Neil along, a Neil who seemed to be staring at Kevin as they ran down the block, the pixies once more leading the way and the sound of confusion and panic behind them. They didn't stop until they hit a red light at an intersection, the flow of traffic too steady for them to risk running across it.

"I think I see something green ahead," Kevin said as he stood up on his toes and squinted at the far distance while the pixies chattered to Neil. "It's a big space, at least." He turned to face Andrew wearing a nervous smile as he rubbed at the ring once again. "Just a little more to go."

Neil had been quiet at Andrew's side, the gauntlet still spread over much of his upper right body, and then burst out in old Fae as he lunged at Kevin, magic glowing around his right hand and features twisted with acrid emotion. Kevin blanched as he just managed to duck out of reach - that and Andrew wrapped an arm around the idiot's upper chest and yanked him back while a couple of people took to gaping and pointing at them.

"What the hell are you doing? _Neil!_ " He yanked the idiot against him but Neil didn't respond, he just kept scowling at Kevin while spitting out curses, that ominous silver glow around his fist. "Neil!"

"I don't... I don't think it's him," Kevin said as he held his left hand clutched to his chest. "Not really."

/ _Truth_./

For a moment that statement confused Andrew, until he felt his arm slide against the slick metal of the gauntlet. "Dammit, Neil," he muttered as he wondered what the hell was going on, if the torc could do the same thing to him. Then he focused on the problem at hand and how they didn't have much time. So he leaned forward and nipped at the elongated ear masked by the glamour near his mouth, and sighed when he felt Neil shudder and gasp as if starved for air.

"An... Andrew?" Neil sounded confused and felt completely drained, mentally and physically. "I...."

"Later," Andrew told him, not unkindly as he loosened his hold a little before the idiot became panicked by it. "Let's just get out of here right now."

"'kay." Neil wasn't happy at the moment, but he accepted the need to move just then and gave Andrew's arm a quick squeeze before he did his best to push away to stand on his own.

Watching closely to ensure that Neil didn't fall flat on his face due to that sense of exhaustion, Andrew shifted the bags further on his back before he nodded. "Do I have to do that hair-dragging thing yet?"

"No, but I may throw up on _your_ shoes," Neil mumbled as he staggered forward until Andrew sighed and grabbed him by the arm to help steady the pain in the ass since the wolves seemed to be taking their time in returning – that or they were staying out of sight. "The park?" Neil asked, and managed a faint smile when the pixies hissed out something. "Okay, right ahead."

/ _Truth_./

"That's what Kevin said before you tried to kill him."

"Not you," Kevin explained in a rush when Neil's smile was wiped away. "I think it's the gauntlet." He waved the two of them on to cross the street since the light was green and traffic light enough for them to finally cross.

/ _Truth._ /

"So much better." Neil shuddered at the proximity of the cars, his nausea growing with every step, along with the heaviness of his breathing, until Andrew was half-carrying him when they reached the other side of the street. Fortunately, Andrew caught sight of a sign for some Sherman Park once there, so after a nod to Kevin, they broke into a run for the rest of the way.

Neil seemed to rally the closer they got to the large patch of greenery, the farther he got from the buildings and amount of exposed metal. Even so, Andrew kept an arm around him and himself in-between Neil and Kevin just in case… well, he wasn’t certain what had happened back there. The silver was gone from Neil’s blue eyes, but the gauntlet was still spread farther than Andrew had ever seen it before, spread past Neil’s right arm. Was it because of the danger they were facing? Neil being in the human world? Or because of Kevin gaining Titania’s ring?

/ _Truth_./

Andrew grit his teeth together as he resisted the urge to rip off the damn torc. Which one, dammit? Yet before he could work through the litany again one by one, they had reached the park, a wide expanse of greenery with some smaller trees and pavilions not far the entrance, but when he reached out with his earth magic he could feel older trees further back, near a source of flowing water. Those were what they’d need to reach for Dan to take them back to the knowe.

There was also the stench of various magic, a clear sign that someone had anticipated them making a run for the park. Andrew supposed that it wasn’t a surprise, that as Fae they’d want a place which was safe from the taint of metal, a place away from prying human eyes and suitable for casting magic, but he hated to be thought of as predictable.

He sunk his magic into the earth the same time that Neil called out in old Fae and Kevin began to summon a spell, as Nuit and Ombré returned from the shadows or wherever they’d just been along with Danseur and Pilier. The same time about twenty or so Fae in striped yellow and dark orange stepped around the various play equipment meant for human children to charge at them.

The silver overtook Neil’s eyes again the same time that the liquid metal on his body grew spiky all over, a grotesque armor that was half rosebush- half pin cushion. Andrew spared him some concern until the idiot began unleashing a barrage of curses which took down two Fae whose voices pierced the night with screams of agony, the same time that he also flung out one of those malicious stones. Andrew actually paused a moment to take in the effect of the thing while his spirits ripped apart a Bannick of all things, watched how a Kelpie tried to cry out as a fast-acting rot overtook her body and quickly rendered her into falling pieces of decayed flesh.

Nasty didn’t begin to describe it, and Andrew was quick to pluck one of his own stones from beneath his armbands, along with the vials of rendered pixie dust, to try it out for himself.

Meanwhile, Kevin was a whirling dervish of flashing sword and spellwork – with his sword back in his _left_ hand. Andrew didn’t spare much thought for that as he concentrated on taking care of the Fae trying to kill him, of having the spirits act as an extension of his will (deadly) while he flung out his knives (oh, were there curses on them?), as he swung his staff with the strength of the earth’s energy behind it, as he used the items Neil had given him at judicious moments when a ‘clever’ Fae or two managed to get too close.

Twenty Fae weren’t nearly enough, especially with hungry shadow wolves and a screeching clan of pixies eager to defend their king. Andrew didn’t even have a chance to work up a sweat by the time there was nothing left but bodies lying around them, except that Neil was once more stalking toward Kevin while spitting out curses, his emotions a jangled mess of hatred, jealousy and pain.

That wasn’t like Neil. That _wasn’t_ Neil.

So Andrew shoved his way between the two while Kevin held his bloodied sword up in a defensive position and the shadow wolves circled around Neil while yipping and coughing as if confused themselves. “Dammit, _stop this_ ,” he ordered while the torc burned hot around his neck. “Neil, _stop_.” When Neil made another swipe with clawed fingers at a swearing Kevin, Andrew dropped his staff and grabbed the idiot by the face with both hands. “Stop it, you idiot!” By that point the gauntlet had crept its way half up Neil’s face, but it allowed Andrew to thread his fingers through tangled curls and pull Neil in for a kiss that wasn’t more than the press of their lips together.

Neil was stiff at first, and then he let out a hitched breath and mumbled ‘yes’ against Andrew’s lips. When they pulled apart, the silver was gone once again from Neil’s now all blue eyes, the pupils thin lines down the center. “’Drew?”

“Stop that,” Andrew repeated. “What the fuck is going on?”

Neil gasped as the gauntlet started to recede as if it was pulling away vital energy as it went. “I don’t… I don’t know.” It terrified him to admit that fact, and the wolves rushed in to press against his legs, to rub against his hands and hips in an effort to soothe. “It feels like I’m so far away when it happens, and all I can feel is pain. Pain and loss and jealousy.”

Kevin dared to take a step forward and, when Neil didn’t react and try to kill him, took another. “Maybe it contains some of Maeb’s feelings inside of it since she wore it for so long. If she felt strongly about anyone, it was Titania. Titania and Oberon.” He glanced at Andrew when he spoke that name.

“Great, I’m being possessed by my grandmother. Great-grandmother.” Neil let out a strained laugh as he fisted his hands in Andrew’s t-shirt while he wavered a little from side to side. “I hate Fae bloodlines.”

“You’re clearly a warning about inbreeding,” Andrew said as he gave a light flick to the idiot’s left ear, purposely keeping it gentle enough not to set off any past trauma but it seemed to him to be the best way to short-circuit Neil’s brain, to get him to stop his latest bout of idiocy and focus on the _now_. And it worked since Neil shivered a little and gaped at him without any hint of fear or pain over their link, just incredulousness and a hint of pleasure and a bit of ‘what the fuck?’. “No killing Kevin, all right? If anyone gets to do it, it’s me.”

“What?” Kevin half-screamed that as he stared at Andrew in disbelief. “What are you-“

“Uhm, look, this is all really fun to watch and all, but there’s a ton of dead bodies around here and… okay, dead bodies,” Dan called out as she stepped forward from the line of trees, dressed in orange yoga pants, fuzzy slippers and a white crop top. “I was asked to provide a ride, not an alibi.”

“I’ll provide the alibi,” Matt offered as he waved to Neil, dressed in an old pair of sweatpants and a PSU hoodie. “Or burn the bodies.” Then he frowned. “Oh, they’re all Fae, never mind.”

Someone needed to deal with their fucking crush very, very soon, Andrew decided as he pulled an exhausted Neil closer to his side. “It’s about damn time.”

“Oh for crying out loud, I just found out,” Dan told him as she glowered with her hands fisted on her hips. “And we rushed right here, only to see you sucking face with Neil. Sucking face while surrounded by dead Fae. If you’re done, let’s go.”

“Uhm, I didn’t mind the- oof.” Matt cringed when both Dan and several ghosts smacked him silent. “Nevah… mind.”

Neil stared at the imbecile in confusion, at least until Andrew tugged him forward toward the trees in the distance, and then he was happy to move. Well, his spirit was willing, but the flesh was all too weak, so Andrew ended up half-carrying him once again while Kevin made Matt pick up the bags that had been dropped once the fighting had started – Dan gave the Tuatha de Danann a ‘fuck you’ look when he motioned to her and flicked her fingers in the air, and that was that. She might act as their teleporter, but it was obvious that she wasn’t anyone’s mule.

A harsh shove at their backs was the sign that the bodies were about to be wiped from existence – whatever hadn’t been eaten by Ombré and Nuit or dragged back to the Dark Road by Danseur and Pilier. After that, they had to walk a little to get past the more ‘kid-friendly’ part of the park and reach the older trees which Dan and Matt had obviously traveled through, where Dan opened a portal and Andrew shoved Neil through first, followed by way too many pixies and the mutts before Kevin went next, then Andrew.

It felt good to be back at the Foxhole Court, except that Andrew had to drag Neil around some more (the idiot was going to owe Andrew a few more of those ‘malicious’ spell stones) to Renee’s soaking pools, where Neil fumbled out of his clothes without any negative emotions for once and all but fell into the detox water head first, only to surface with a happy sigh a couple of seconds later. Andrew waited long enough to make sure that he wasn’t going to drown (Ombré and Nuit were hovering around the edges of the pool, probably to drag the idiot to the surface if need be) to jump into another heated pool himself, considering everything that had happened the last couple of days. Well, relatively speaking.

 Things were quiet for a few minutes before Neil rested his arms over the edge of the pool, the gauntlet back to a thick silver band once more. “Uhm, so, Kevin has the ring.” He sounded exhausted and his voice a bit hoarse, but he didn’t feel quite so worn down anymore.

“Yes, and he better quit it with the whole ‘heirs’ shit,” Andrew said as he tilted his head back to look up at the stars above.

“Yeah.” Neil was relieved at that. “I don’t want to be the Unseelie king or whatever. I don’t mind helping the pixies because they’re there for me and they need someone to be on their side, but that’s it.” He was quiet as he settled back some more into the bath. “I don’t… I don’t like people paying attention to me. Nothing good ever comes out of it.”

Neil, the idiot who had gone and gotten himself changed to such an extent. Neil, the idiot with the gorgeous big blue eyes and those cheekbones and the bright red hair and… _everything_. Someone better get used to disappointment, because there was nothing about Neil that didn’t draw in the eye, that didn’t make him stand out. “It doesn’t matter if you attract attention when you control what happens next,” he told Neil as he held his hand out in Neil’s direction.

He could feel the way those words affected the idiot, the sudden weight of realization and the pain of old memories, followed by relief and happiness. “I… yes.” There was the pleased rumble from Ombré as he rubbed the mutt’s ears. “Things are different now.”

“Yes, they are.” After that, they spent the next hour or so soaking in silence, until Neil felt better and Abby showed up with clean clothes for the both of them as well as a couple of potions for Neil.

The next couple of days were a bit busy, which somehow didn’t surprise Andrew. First there was going through the bags that they’d brought back from the Dark Road, with Neil getting first dibs but the rest of the Foxes splitting the spoils since the idiot claimed that he didn’t have a use for everything. Neil did end up with some new (to him) clothes, a couple of knives, and a pouch enchanted to carry a huge amount of items (Andrew tuned Kevin out as he babbled about the logistics of the thing). Andrew snagged some new clothes as well and a set of knives charmed to never dull for himself, and all the Foxes were pleased with the items they picked as well, including being able to split up the cache of coins and gems. There might be a new car in Andrew’s future – if things quieted down long enough for him to enjoy it.

Then Kevin dragged Andrew around while he tested out the ring, both to have someone to fight with to see how well he could use his left hand again (Andrew had to admit, he didn’t mind taking swings at Kevin just then, but the coward seemed to regain full ability with his damaged hand, dammit), as well as the magical capability of the enchanted item.

Andrew didn’t need the thing to confirm Matt’s crush on Neil (though he was true to Dan, which saved the Tylwyth Teg’s life) as well as Renee’s on Allison (though it seemed that Allison was beginning to return those feelings). That Dan wanted to have a knowe similar to the Foxhole Court if not take over for Wymack if that time ever came, that Nicky literally pined for Erik or that Wymack was a fucking bleeding heart who just wanted someplace safe for his ‘kids’.

The ring didn’t work on Neil, which Andrew found both frustrating and a relief.  Especially when he could find the time with Neil, when they inched their way along the… the thing between them whenever Aaron wasn’t ranting at Andrew about fucking with his life or Kevin harping on him about being heirs or Wymack bitching at him to guard the knowe when he sent everyone else out to fetch supplies.

When he and Neil could fumble their way around their various issues and boundaries, could work out Neil’s sensitivities with his ears and Andrew’s with his neck (oh was Neil pleased about that). They didn’t progress very far, not past taking off their shirts so the idiot could be fascinated with Andrew’s chest hair (it was a fetish, Andrew was calling it a fetish) while Andrew mapped out the too many scars that covered Neil’s upper body (Neil had stilled at first, his emotions conflicted, until he realized that Andrew wasn’t horrified or disgusted by them).

They still hadn’t defined what was between them, hadn’t formalized anything… but in a way, Andrew preferred that. Because he didn’t want to do that, didn’t want to say ‘this is what it is’ when that would only ruin things, when it made something grow warm inside of him to have Neil smile at him and drop down from that one branch in the oak tree or come running with the mutts trailing behind him or chide Jorea to be civil or… just everything and be next to Andrew when he could be anywhere else in the knowe. When Matt was willing to hang out with him or play with the mutts, for Abby to have him stay in the work room for company or Nicky to talk in the common room or… he could be with any of the Foxes rather than Andrew.

Well, except Aaron. Andrew’s brother was still an asshole who complained about barely being able to go out into the mortal world, who stared at his phone too much and… oh, had Kevin found an interesting thing, thanks to his ring.

It was time to do something about Aaron.

*******

"I've never seen the place look so... well, it's kind of bi-polar, really," Allison mused from where she was stretched out on a blanket spread beneath the oak tree, dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a top that looked as if it had been torn in a fight over a much smaller top which didn't cover much skin. Sitting beside her in a flowing pink and cream colored dress which covered a lot more was a smiling Renee, busy once more making flower crowns.

"Hmm? What do you mean by that?" the naiad asked as she looked up from the red camellia and white heather she was weaving together.

"On the one hand you have the buildings which are so clean and well-organized now that you can't leave anything out of place for too long, and the food is wonderful." Allison groaned as she placed her right hand on top of her flat belly. "I'm going to gain weight soon if those Brownies keep it up in the kitchen with all that cooking."

"You work out enough that it should be fine," Renee assured her.

" _Should_ ," Allison sniffed. "And then you have the gardens." Allison tilted her head back on her neck with her long blonde hair trailing onto the blanket, as she looked up at Neil on his perch. "Your little friends are having a field day, aren't they?" She grinned until Nyxia sprinkled dust in her face. "Case in point," she muttered as she sat up to rub at her eyes.

"Abby's rather pleased with the potency of the herbs," Neil said as he held out his left hand for the grumbling pixie to settle on while Jorea continued to braid his hair; the healer had told that to a glowering Wymack the other day when he'd been chased out of the one garden when he stepped into it to have a cigarette. Needless to say, the Daoine Sidhe hadn't been happy.

It wasn't as if Neil had intended for the pixies to take over most of the knowe's gardens, it was just... well, more kept showing up all of the time. Some of them stayed only for a day or two, but some never left. It was the same thing with the Brownies, with stray changelings and half-Fae seeking shelter at the Foxhole Court, so the knowe was starting to get a bit crowded. Neil was debating sending a message to his uncle to ask him about going to Night's Haven and re-opening the knowe, to searching through it for any spells his father might have left so Neil could at least send the pixies there and maybe some of the shadow wolves.

He was still sworn to Wymack and that wouldn't change... but it wouldn't be a bad thing, to have somewhere to go that would be safe from other people, where he wouldn't have to hear the whispers of 'Maeb's heir' and 'Unseelie king' and the such. It wasn't the Dark Road, but it was the second best thing, his own knowe. That was, as long as he wasn’t beholden to some other court.

Until then, he would do his best to stay out of everyone's way and attract as little attention to himself as possible.

Well, as possible when he had shadow wolves and pixies around him all the time.

" _More jinxes_ ," Jorea chided as she gave a slight tug to his hair, so he sighed and set Nyxia down on the branch and picked up a new sprig of willow while Allison laughed at him.

"They certainly don't fawn over you like the Brownies do with Kevin, I'll say that for them."

"Brownies," Jorea sneered as she fluttered her wings. "Meek Seelie they are. _We_ fight for our king."

"Well, they can make things miserable for the people they don’t like if they’re so inclined,” Renee commented as she placed the finished flower crown on Allison’s head with a pleased smile. “So they’re not entirely meek.”

“Meek enough,” Jorea insisted.

“So, it should be our turn to go fetch some supplies soon,” Allison said as she looked at Renee. “There’s a new place that opened up in town, some sort of Brazilian-Japanese fusion that’s probably trying way too hard but it’ll have to do until Wymack stops being so paranoid and lets us go to a proper city. What do you think?”

Renee twirled a piece of heather between her fingers while she gave Allison a solemn gaze, at least until the Valkyrie arched an elegant eyebrow at her, and then she smiled. “Well, it’s not pizza or hamburgers, like most of the places around here, but as good as their cooking is, I’m in the mood for something other than what the Brownies make.” Then her smile faltered as she dropped the stalk to the ground. “But what about Wymack? Won’t he be upset if we spend too much time outside of the knowe?”

The Daoine Sidhe had finally lifted the ‘lock down’ (as Andrew and the others called it) on the Foxhole Court, but he didn’t want his people outside of it for very long, not that Neil cared to leave it for anything other than the Dark Road. That and no one could leave by themselves, so usually it was Dan and Matt going out for supplies, though Allison and Renee had gone out once already, and Aaron had gone off with Nicky while Andrew had remained behind in a foul mood due to his bond with Neil.

Allison scoffed as she adjusted her crown. “We’re having dinner, he can chill a bit, the old grouch. It’s not like we’re staging a mini- _coup d’état_ of the knowe like _some_ people I could name.”

Neil blinked at that, especially since Allison was giving him a pointed look. “Uhm… I’m not taking over anything.”

The Valkyrie looked from him to the pixies to Ombré and Nuit sprawled not too far away. “Right, because a couple of months ago, one worried more about hay fever and scratches from the thorns coming out here, not inhaling a toxic amount of pixie dust or being eaten by some shadow wolves.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m taking over anything.” Neil scowled as he finished the latest hex.

“But you’ve gotten rather comfy out here.” When Neil didn’t respond to that, Allison rolled her eyes. “Whatever. All I’m saying is Wymack has bigger problems to deal with right now than me and Renee having a bite to eat while picking up his latest shopping list.”

Neil held her gaze for a moment before he looked over at the naiad. “Put some hemlock in the next crown for her.”

While Allison laughed at that, Renee smiled and shook her head. “I appreciate the suggestion, but it’s a bit obvious, no? I usually go for more subtly than that.”

Allison gasped at that. “No! You’re supposed to stick up for me!” She wrapped her arms around Renee’s upper chest and pulled her close. “All those times I went easy on you during weapons practice, too!”

There was a flash of emotion that crossed Renee’s face a bit too fast for Neil to interpret, but he had the impression that she didn’t mind Allison’s mock anger at her just then, nor being so close to the Valkyrie. However, before the wrestling or whatever was going on between the two women could go much further, Andrew appeared, dressed in black and his emotions a mix of annoyance, resolution, caution and disbelief.

“Did you hit them up with pixie dust?” he asked Neil as he came to a stop a few feet away from the tree; judging from the swaying of the leaves around him and the sense of energy as well, Neil assumed that he had a couple of spirits around him, too.

“No.” As they spoke, Renee and Allison broke apart – Allison to frown and re-adjust her crown in an imperial manner while Renee brushed back the hair that had fallen onto her face and to give Andrew a pleased smile along with a slight wave. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes.” Andrew motioned to Neil. “I want to talk to you.”

“Okay.” Neil handed the finished jinx to Jorea before he jumped down from the branch, which prompted the pixie to hiss in displeasure even as she followed. “Have fun doing… whatever,” he told the two women.

“Have no doubt, Bright Eyes,” Allison called out. “You have fun doing _things_ , too.”

Renee chided her friend while Neil frowned at that statement, Andrew’s emotions more annoyed for a moment, at least until he reached the necromancer’s side. Then the slight furrow between Andrew’s brows smoothed out and he reached out to pick up Neil’s right wrist. “Is it behaving today?”

“Ah, so far.” Neil fought not to react to Andrew being so near and touching him like that, and knew he wasn’t succeeding when amusement washed over their link. “Then again, no one’s tried to kill or kidnap me yet.”

“ _Yet_.” Andrew waited until they were further away from the oak tree to continue speaking. “So, am I interrupting anything important? Helping the pixies take over the worlds? Bonding some more with Renee?”

“Just thinking of new ways to annoy bastards,” Neil remarked, which made Jorea chuckle from her perch on his right shoulder and Ombré bounce on her paws for a few steps – and Andrew give his arm a harsh tug. “What?”

“Idiots shouldn’t be such smart asses, it’ll get them in trouble.” Andrew came to a stop and turned to face Neil. “Ready to go back to the mortal world?”

Neil swayed as the impact of that question hit him, as he remembered the awful feel of all that metal around him, the metal and the polluted air and all that awful hard surface – concrete, Andrew had called it. Then he shivered at the feel of Andrew’s calloused hand cupping the side of his face, the touch light yet reassuring. “Why?”

Andrew was quiet for a moment as he met Neil’s gaze. “You said you’d go with me. Bee figured out a potion and everything.”

“Ah, it’s for Aaron.” Neil sighed as Andrew’s fingers twitched against his scalp for a moment then slid further into his hair. “I really will throw up on your feet this time,” he promised, unhappy about having to deal with the mortal world again but willing to do it if it brought Andrew some peace.

“I’ll make you clean it up,” Andrew promised in return. “And then bitch at Bee, who said this would work." He reached into the pocket of his black jeans (which clung to his muscular thighs - why was Neil thinking of such things?) to pull out a small vial filled with some sort of milky green liquid which he handed to Neil. "She said to take it before we leave the knowe."

"Wonderful." Neil eyed the potion with some trepidation as he accepted it, then looked at Andrew as his friend stroked along his cheek, concern and a hint of unhappiness flowing across their bond. "Hmm?"

"Do you trust me? Do you think I'll let something happen to you once we leave here?" Andrew asked, his expression blank but emotions serious and a little offended.

"No, that's not it." Neil offered him a small yet true smile as he tilted his face into the caress, as he shivered a little when those fingers brushed against his ear. "I just don't really like the mortal world."

"You need to get used to it," Andrew told him. "It's not going away, and if Bee's potion works then it's a solution." He trailed the tips of his fingers along the outer edge of Neil's left ear until a faint moan slipped free. "Besides, Palmetto isn't as bad as a city."

"If you say so." Neil closed his eyes so he could better concentrate on the feel of those fingers, as he remembered other times when Andrew had touched him, until he felt his face become flushed and desire flare across the bond. "Ah, yes, you wanted to leave," he mumbled as he opened his eyes and nearly dropped the vial in his haste to undo the top. Andrew caught it for him the same time he pulled Neil in a little closer.

"Yes or no?" he breathed out, which made Neil's own breath hitch in his throat.

"Yes."

Neil smiled as they closed the space between them, as Andrew’s lips pressed against his own and grip tightened in his hair. He parted his lips without hesitation and moaned at the taste of coffee and cigarettes, at the feel of Andrew’s tongue against his own along with the echo of pleasure flowing across the bond. There was such a strong urge to break off the kiss, to trail his mouth along Andrew’s chin, to savor the feel of faint stubble along his lips and work his way down to that sensitive neck to provoke a few shivers and faint gasps of his own, just like Andrew wrung from him with feather-light caresses to his ears.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time and in the middle of a garden definitely wasn’t the place, especially with Jorea and a few other pixies hovering around them. Neil could feel Andrew’s growing displeasure with the tiny Fae as pixie dust rained down on them while they kissed, so with a slight nip to his friend’s lower lip, broke off their embrace.

When they pulled apart, Neil smiled again at the sight of a stone-faced Andrew covered with iridescent dust while he flicked the lid off the vial and poured the contents into his mouth before he could change his mind. There was a strong mint flavor, which meant that there had to be a lot of herb in the thing, and he struggled to keep it down for a few seconds when he felt a tingling effect. "I think it's working."

"Good." Andrew took the vial from him and threw it aside, which made Jorea complain, then held Neil's hand. "Let's go."

"We're stopping on the Dark Road on the way back," Neil argued, and after Andrew nodded, used the shadows to go to the mortal world. It wasn't difficult to do since Palmetto was so close to the knowe, and he chose for them to appear in the woods not too far from the portal tree.

There was a little pain as he stepped out of the shadows, a bit of nausea... but it wasn't as bad as usual, being in the mortal world. The air still tasted foul and his skin itched, but it was bearable.

Andrew gave his hand a squeeze while studying him before letting him go. "Pull on a glamour," he ordered before he turned to Nuit and Ombré. "And keep out of sight. There shouldn't be any trouble but if there is, leave it to me to handle at first, all right?"

Ombré huffed at that while Nuit gave the necromancer a quick 'smile'; Neil shook his head at them and Andrew's narrowed look before he pulled on an illusion which would hide his hooded tunic, bare feet, distinctive coloring and appearance. "Uhm, one moment." He reached into the spelled pouch to dig about for a pair of boots, not happy to have to wear them but unwilling to put up with the harsh surface that mortals seemed to have everywhere in their world.

Andrew lit a cigarette while he pulled on the footwear then nodded in approval. "You're learning."

"I'm learning what a bastard you are, yes," Neil told him with a sharp grin and got a flick to his forehead. "Really?" After he came here and everything?

"Now stay close and don't draw any attention, all right?" Andrew tugged on Neil's left sleeve while giving him another searching look, his gaze lingering on Neil's right wrist which for the moment was still covered by a solid band of silver. "That thing needs to behave for once."

"I'll do what I can," Neil promised, but they both knew that the gauntlet seemed to have a mind of its own. "Leave me out of any fights with your brother, maybe?"

Andrew snorted at that but didn't make any promises, which was so reassuring.

They started walking out of the forest, Neil with the wolves as flickering shadows around him and a few spirits around Andrew (Neil didn't know if they were new ones or not, just that they hadn't come through the shadows with them). After a couple of minutes, Andrew began speaking. "Nicky told me that he spoke to you a little about what's going on." He didn't feel very happy about that, so Neil hoped that his friend hadn't gotten into too much trouble. "About Aaron dating humans."

"Yes." Neil rubbed at the gauntlet as he gave Andrew a nervous smile. "He said something about Aaron preferring them to other Fae because he grew up among them."

There was a blast of anger/hatred/humor/confusion at that. "He thought he was one for most of his childhood, that his mother was human. Dear Tilda, whom he misses to this day despite the way she abused him." Hatred and derision was so evident in those words that Neil flinched a little. "One would think the two of you would get along better, considering how much you have in common."

Things were quiet for a couple of minutes then, as if Andrew had realized that he'd said too much - for his part, Neil could sense the anger lessening, could sense something that might be regret. Maybe.

"I don't know what you want me to say," he told Andrew. "I know she wasn't... she did what she had to, my mother," he tried to explain. "What she could do, considering everything. She kept me out of his reach. My father's and Tetsuji's."

The anger returned as Andrew reached out to make Neil stop and look at him. "She should have run the moment she knew she was pregnant with you. She never should have made the mutts leave the two of you alone. She certainly never should have allowed that prick to lay a hand on you." When Neil flinched at that and tried to shake his head, Andrew's almost golden eyes narrowed in a slight show of the harsh emotions inside of him. "No. No, don't argue with me on this, even your uncle agrees, dammit! I won't deny that she did protect you, but don't deny that she could have done so much more."

Neil went to push the bastard away for the painful truths being flung at him, only to rest his hand against Andrew's chest. "She was all I had," he tried to explain. "For so long, she was all I had."

"That still doesn't make what she did right," Andrew said, his voice softer as his hand slid up to curl around Neil's nape.

"I know," Neil admitted as he allowed his head to rest against his friend's shoulder, just for a few seconds. “But there wasn’t much that was right in that whole mess.” When he felt Andrew draw in a deep breath, he shook his head and pulled away. “Pl- can we just not talk about this right now?” Or ever, really, because there wasn’t any way to change the past, to fix what his mother had or hadn’t done. To remove the scars from Neil’s body or wipe away the awful memories from his mind… well there probably was a spell for that, but then he wouldn’t be ‘Neil’, would he?

Andrew gave him a cool look for a couple of seconds before giving a gentle, barely passing flick to his left ear. “Come on, we’re wasting time. Too much longer and everyone back at the knowe will be freaking out and wondering where you’ve gone.”

“Probably be thinking that you finally went ahead and killed me, and are off disposing of me somewhere,” Neil offered up with a genuine smile as he rubbed at his ear.

“Don’t tempt me,” Andrew intoned in that flat manner of his, but Neil could feel his amusement so he walked next to the bastard close enough to rub shoulders. His own good mood lasted until they reached the parking lot, where he took to whining for a couple of seconds. “We’re walking, right?”

“Relax, no driving today. I’m not chancing you being sick in my car.” Still, Andrew made Neil wander through a few of the metal monstrosities so he could check out the black one with the glittering paint for about a minute before they resumed walking; the potion was indeed working, but Neil still was very uncomfortable to be surrounded by so much metal and out on the strange black, smelly hard surface.

“Renee told me that this is some sort of university,” Neil said as they came to a walkway where there were a few humans. “That people study here?”

“It’s pretty common, places like these,” Andrew explained. “It’s not the eighteen hundreds anymore.”

“If it was, I wouldn’t have such a big problem coming here, would I?” Neil laughed when Andrew shoved a hand in his face. “I’m not always an idiot.”

“Yes you are, now be quiet.” Andrew lit another cigarette as they walked past a couple of young men who didn’t pay them any attention. While they headed… wherever, Andrew seemed to concentrate on something and know where they were going, while Neil did his best not to stare in wonder at the buildings and the way people were dressed, now that he was in the mortal world without the fear of someone immediately chasing after or trying to kill him.

He kept glancing around, amazed at how openly men and women interacted with each other, at how much had changed since he had spent time in this world with his mother. “You’re thinking too much,” Andrew chided as he flicked aside the remains of his cigarette.

“It’s just….” Neil wrapped his arms around his middle as he tried to put what he was feeling into words. “I spent a lot of time here before I ended up on the Dark Road since we crossed back and forth between here and the Fae world all of the time. I thought I knew it rather well, considering how we needed to blend in. Then when I spent time on the Dark Road and had to return here for the things I needed… everything was so different and I only stayed until I got the necessary supplies. I guess this is the first time I could really notice how… fucked up everything is.”

Andrew glanced aside at him before shaking his head. “All right, I’ll be sure to ask what the hell Bee put in that potion.” When Neil sighed at that, he reached over to give another gentle, barely there flick to Neil’s ear. “You’re the last person to talk about things being fucked up, you know.”

“And about being cursed, I believe.” Neil smiled as he swatted Andrew’s hand away before he could be ‘flicked’ again, even though he didn’t mind the gestures, not when he knew that Andrew ensured that they didn’t hurt or bothered him. “So, where are we going?”

“A place called a library, have you ever heard of it?”

Neil rolled his eyes at that. “Perhaps once or twice. What are we going to do there? Somehow I doubt we’ll be looking up spells or Fae history.”

“No, not quite.” Something too dark for amusement flowed across the bond. “It seems that a certain irritant is there right now.”

“Ah.” Neil thought about that for a moment and winced. “I wouldn’t think that would be the best place for dealing with an ‘irritant’, would you?” When all Andrew did was give him a blank look in return, he sighed again. “I hope you have some deflection spells handy.”

“I figured it was time for you to be of some use.”

Neil spent a good minute or two cursing the bastard out in old Fae for that.

They reached a large building made out of dark glass and metal which made Neil shiver to see it, so of course Andrew dragged him inside. One of the spirits must be leading the necromancer since he knew where he was going, and he did something to get them past a panel with blinking lights that the humans waved a small badge at as they walked near it.

“This isn’t like any library I’ve seen before,” Neil admitted as they went past a row of odd things that the students stared at with an intensity to rival scrying for a glimpse of the future. He felt a bit better when they reached a section with real books, although there still was too much plastic and metal even with the paper and leather. “What do you know about her? Aaron’s… uhm, girlfriend?”

He was given a displeased look for that, though Andrew was quiet until they reached the second floor. “That she’s going to cause us trouble,” was all he said.

Well, that was helpful, wasn’t it? Neil forced his hand away from the gauntlet before it reacted to his unease and tried not to think about the potion running out while he was stuck in the mortal world or Andrew causing trouble of his own and someone noticing them or… or anything that might result in something bad happening.

It took a little longer, but Andrew managed to find his quarry in a row of books toward the back of the second floor. “Greg? Did you-“ A girl with long dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and skin a little darker than Neil’s looked at them with light green eyes that brightened with happiness when she spotted Andrew. “Aaron!” She set a book back on the shelf and took a step forward before her smile faltered while Andrew just stood there. “Wait, no.” She glanced back and forth between Andrew and Neil. “You’re… you’re Andrew, aren’t you?”

“Oh, did Aaron mention me?” Neil could feel the fury that filled Andrew over that fact. “How thoughtful of him. And what did he say?” The scent of freshly turned earth and ivy filled the air, Andrew working some sort of spell or another – hopefully that deflection spell or something to keep anyone from overhearing them.

The girl took a deep breath as if to steady herself. “Ah… that he had a twin brother. That was all.”

Andrew clicked his tongue. “Here we’ve just met and you’re already lying to me, how unpleasant, Katelyn. He told you to stay away from me, didn’t he? That I’m not to be trusted.”

The girl – Katelyn, apparently, gave a frightened little nod and made a motion as if to take something from her pocket; Neil wondered if it was one of those ‘phones’ that the other Foxes kept trying to make him carry. “I don’t- I mean… I think I need to go join my friend.” She gave Andrew a nervous smile as she motioned beyond him to the open area where there were numerous tables for the students to sit and study and stare at those strange devices.

“No.” Andrew blocked her path while Neil shivered at the anger and disgust seething inside of his friend. “We’re not done here until _I_ say so.” Katelyn gasped as she was shoved back into the bookshelf behind her, apparently by a spirit or two. “Now then, pay attention little girl, because the lessons grow more painful after this. You’re going to stay away from my brother. No more phone calls, no more flirting, no more anything.” With each word, the spirit slammed into her again until she started to cry.

“Andrew, I think that’s enough,” Neil said as he stared at the girl – young woman, really, as humans considered things. There was something about her, though, something that didn’t feel quite right. He frowned as he stepped forward and pulled the knife strapped to his right hip, which made Ombré and Nuit appear from the shadows and Andrew reach for him as Katelyn cried in earnest. “No, I’m not going to hurt you… ah, not really,” he tried to explain as he gave a slight knick to her exposed left forearm.

“Neil,” Andrew warned as some of his anger started to abate.

“It’s not that type of magic,” he told his friend, assuming that Andrew was worried that he was going to use his Folús Sidhe heritage right then. What he was trying to do wasn’t really something he got from either his mother or father, but it was a trick he’d learned from his mother regardless because of his father using changelings to track them down. Once there was a drop of blood welling from the slight cut, he chanted the spell and frowned when there was a faint glow in response.

“Oh my god, what are you doing? What’s going on?” Katelyn gasped as Neil wiped the blade on his right thigh before sheathing it while Andrew’s eyes narrowed in renewed anger.

“Say anything about this to your friends or the authorities and you’ll never be able to talk again,” Andrew promised as he stepped away, which seemed to indicate that their little… whatever was over. “And stay away from my brother or it won’t be a tiny cut next time. I’ll be watching.”

Andrew led Neil away to an unoccupied row of books, where Neil was only too happy to take them to the Dark Road once they were alone. He let out a pleased groan as they stepped into the magical realm, but the rage still simmered inside of the necromancer.

Taking in a deep breath as he turned to face Andrew, Neil reached out slowly and waited until his friend nodded before he cupped Andrew’s jaw. As always, the pleasure and happiness he experienced at the feel of the rasp of stubble beneath his fingers provoked an aggrieved sigh from Andrew, made the anger break apart as the necromancer reached for him in return. “You and your odd fetish.”

“Hmm, it’s not that, not really.” Neil had a difficult time explaining it. It was just… he knew it was Andrew, feeling that rasp against his fingertips, the tickle of hair that covered firm flesh. It helped to ground him, to set apart everything that they did with each other – that and it was _Andrew_. Neil couldn’t help it if he was endlessly fascinated by the bastard. “It’s just… well, it’s you.”

That seemed to help a bit more with the remaining anger, even if the kiss that followed was short and harsh and made Neil’s lips a little numb from the force of it. Perhaps he’d have been frightened by it if he couldn’t feel Andrew’s emotions, the want and desire tempered by something that made him feel safe, by the gentle way that Andrew cupped his face during the savage intensity of it.

Then Andrew broke off the kiss and sank to the ground while tugging Neil down with him; Neil was happy to rest against him while his friend poked at the gauntlet, Ombré and Nuit settled nearby while the rest of the pack could be heard not too far off. “So Katelyn is a changeling. How unpleasant.”

“Yes, though it looks like the blood is weak.” Neil hummed a little while Andrew traced the scrollwork on the gauntlet and Ombré rested her head on his left knee. “So not entirely human.”

“Aaron has to know about it.” Andrew wasn’t happy about, even though his expression as a blank as always. “I don’t think she does, though, so one wonders what game he’s playing this time.” He tapped a nail against the thick silver. “Could you tell her bloodline?”

Neil shook his head. “The spell doesn’t work like that, it’s not part of my magic.” No, his magic was death and half-truths and running. “It just lets me identify Fae blood.”

“I see.” Andrew tapped the gauntlet once more before looking at Neil, his eyes glowing almost golden in the Dark Road’s twilight setting. “No clue at all?”

“Well… maybe that she’s Seelie, whatever it is,” Neil admitted. “I didn’t feel an impulse to protect her.”

“Good for me, then,” Andrew drawled as he made a show of wiping his brow free of imaginary sweat. “What would I have done?”

“Such an asshole,” Neil murmured even as he leaned a little more against the bastard. “Even if she’s weak, she’s still unsworn and out there without a knowe.” Without protection, in other words. Being sworn meant having to owe homage to a knowe and its owner, to owe a debt to that person and obey them and the Court they acknowledged… but it also meant having protection in the end. It meant having someone willing to face down the rest of the Fae for you, to have your back. And if the higher Court found out about you, they could make you bend the knee anyway, so you were stuck one way or the other.

The Fae were good at getting you like that. Living for so long and being unable to lie outright meant they were the masters of fucking one over in a million of different ways, almost all of them with a smile on the face.

“Well, the moron better not be planning on bringing her in to the Foxhole Court,” Andrew said through gritted teeth.

Not for the first time, Neil wondered what it was like to have a sibling, to feel like Andrew did for his brother, his twin; he could share in the emotions over the bond but he couldn’t really _comprehend_ them.  They somewhat resembled what he felt for his mother, but they didn’t quite match up, they had this sense of anger and disappointment and frustration and yearning….

He knew that he’d killed for his mother, just like Andrew had done for Aaron. He knew that his mother had been disappointed in him, just like Andrew was in Aaron. After that, he wasn’t so certain where they were so similar because Mary never had a problem keeping Neil close.

“Too much thinking again,” Andrew chided Neil.

“Right.” Neil let out a slow breath as he gave Ombré a gentle push away. “I need something to eat,” he declared as he stood up. “There should be some trees around here.”

Andrew followed a minute or two later, and was leaning against the trunk of the tree which Neil had climbed when the pack finally caught up with them. Andrew’s emotions took a dissatisfied turn when the pack appeared happy to see him, which entailed rubbing against him and an attempt or two to lick his hands, so Neil expected the slight flick to his ear when he returned to the ground.

“Control your mutts better. At least one of you should be trained and know some manners.”

“Hmm, good luck with that,” Neil told him as he rubbed a fruit against his shirt before taking a big bite.

They walked a little bit while Neil ate and Andrew had another cigarette, toward a stream so Neil could drink and wash his hands and face clean, then Neil spent a little time with the pack before they had to return back to the knowe. By that time it was dark and the pixies anxious, Jorea scolding Neil for being gone so long while only the spirits whirling around Andrew kept him from being blasted by pixie dust.

It didn’t take Aaron long to find them; Neil assumed that the changeling must have been watching the pixies to see their reaction, because he came storming into the garden with a furious expression on his face. It was always so odd to see Aaron with his vivid emotions at times like those, after spending so long with Andrew and his outward lack of them, with the way he schooled his face to reveal so little while Neil could sense everything over the bond they shared.

“You _bastard_ ,” Aaron spat out he stomped toward them. “You just had to go and try to fuck things up for me like you always do, had to go and try to scare her away! You _fucking bastard_!” It looked as if he attempted to take a swing at his brother, but the spirits pushed him away while Andrew merely stood there with his hands in the pockets of his jeans and a bland expression on his face even as anger/disappointment/resignation built inside of him. Meanwhile, Neil stood off to the side with the pixies hovering near him and Nuit growling softly.

“Maybe I should….” He didn’t think Andrew wanted him here for this, considering how private his friend could be about family matters.

“Yes,” Andrew agreed.

“No,” Aaron snarled as he turned to glare at Neil. “Let your latest _fuck buddy_ stay for this, since you decided to involve him in things!” Neil flinched at that term, that insinuation, while he felt Andrew’s temper spike. “How is it that you can fuck whoever you like even if it causes us so much trouble, gets us dragged into a brewing war, but I can’t, huh? Why is it? What makes you so damn special, Andrew?”

“He’s not… we’re not….” Neil shook his head as he rubbed his hands up and down his arms while the gauntlet began to grow, while Ombré began to growl and the pixies took to hissing.

“Leave him out of this,” Andrew told his brother with a rare bit of heat. “You know why I did it, you know why you shouldn’t be out there pretending to be what you’re not – pretending to be _human_.” The left corner of his mouth curled in a faint sneer while his spirits spun about disturbing the garden, in rustling the various plants and snatching at leaves and branches. “Poor wittle Aaron, at first he wants to be so much more than a boring, _weak_ human, and then he decides he doesn’t like being an unremarkable Fae. Indecisive much?”

Aaron’s face became even more flushed at that, and the scent of eucalyptus and pine resin filled the air as he called upon his magic for something. Then Andrew called upon his, the ground beneath their feet giving a slight tremor and the plants waving about as he exerted his powerful earth elemental nature, and Aaron paled in reaction.

“Do you really want to play that game?” Andrew asked him with a deceptive quietness.

“Dammit, you’ve always had _everything_ ,” Aaron said, his voice hoarse and expression bleak, while Neil rocked back and forth from the implication of those words and the impact they had on Andrew – Andrew, whom from the little Neil had pieced together had _not_ ‘had everything’.  Andrew, who was one of the few people (Renee, Jean) who seemed to understand what Neil had gone through in his life with running from his father and the Moriyamas. “You have the magic, you have people wanting to give you places in their knowe because of that magic, you even have pureblood lovers despite you being the biggest asshole around. Why can’t you leave me the hell alone? Me and Katelyn?”

Neil almost tore into the misguided bastard, but when he opened his mouth to speak, he caught a slight shake of the head from Andrew and sighed instead; this was Andrew’s battle, was something his friend had to do. So instead he gave Aaron a virulent look as he bridged the space between him and Andrew with the spirits parting before him, and after a slight pause, rested his hand on Andrew’s shoulder in a gesture of support. “You’re wrong about him,” he told Aaron in as cold a voice as he could manage. “Utterly wrong and a perfect fool.” Then to Andrew he offered as reassuring a smile as he could manage. “I know where some whisky bottles have been stashed. I think the potion is still working, so let me go get them real quick.”

Andrew gave him that blank look in return before shoving him away with a hand to his face. “They better be worth the aggravation of you leaving,” was all he said, but he felt a quick pulse of gratitude all the same. Focusing on that feeling, Neil slipped between the shadows with Jorea chattering in his ear about idiot twins and with Ombré and Nuit at his side, leaving Andrew behind to deal with his brother before the gauntlet reacted and Neil did something he should regret yet didn’t.

*******

Andrew struggled not to flinch when Neil used the shadows to leave the knowe, the ache in his chest blooming immediately as the bond between them was stretched too far. There was an echo of the pain from Neil, along with a sense of determination and a simmering anger.

The anger Andrew could understand, considering he was doing his best to control his own, to keep from crossing the distance separating him from his brother and punching the obstinate moron in the face.

What did it say about him that some improbable idiot who couldn’t go more than a couple of days without getting into some sort of new batch of trouble knew Andrew better than his own twin brother? Knew him well enough to put himself through pain willingly, to go back into a world he detested just to give Andrew something he liked, to make the next few minutes bearable? All while Aaron stood there flinging out accusations that had no basis in the truth?

Andrew pushed Neil as much out of his thoughts as he could and dealt with the current problem on hand. “I think we have two completely different definitions of ‘everything’,” he said as he forced the spirits to calm down while he noticed that a few pixies had remained behind. “And don’t ever refer to Neil like that again.”

That seemed to restore some of the spite back to Aaron as he lifted his head and sneered. “Why not? You’re-“

“We’re not ‘fuck buddies’,” Andrew told him in a tone devoid of all emotions. “Unless you’re so used to toying with those human bitches of yours that you can’t recognize that.”

The jab hit home, as intended. “ _None_ of them were like that,” Aaron raged as his magic flared once again. “Why can’t you-“

“Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?” Andrew gave his brother a thin sliver of a smile as he held up his right hand and bent a finger one by one. “Joanne didn’t put up much of a fight at all, such devotion there. Marjory was perfectly willing to go along with me even when she realized I wasn’t you, such faithfulness. Leslie wasn’t pleased when she found out that you were lying about the mortal job and everything else. Poor Jennie, she didn’t handle the glimpse of magic very well, did she, but a spell wiped away everything to do with it, and you. And Amy… ah, she was a bit stubborn, I’ll give her that, but she’s gone now, too. Funny, how some women don’t like a few dead animals crawling into their beds when they’ll let other things in.”

“You fucking bastard,” Aaron repeated, which was getting oh so boring. “You can’t keep doing this, you can’t keep-“

“Keep what?” Andrew took one step forward while he allowed the disdain he felt for Aaron to show on his face. “Keep you from making yet another stupid mistake? Keep you from risking your life and those of everyone who lives here? Keep the promise I made not only to you but to Wymack and Kevin and Neil?” He slashed his right hand through the air when Aaron stared at him in confusion. “The more you involve yourself with humans, the greater the risk of discovery. Jennie was already noticing things and drawing attention to herself. Amy was putting things together when I stepped in, and you were doing _nothing_.” The rage grew so strong for a moment that Andrew had to pause and take a slow breath before it overwhelmed him, had to calm the spirits once more. He focused on the growing, gnawing ache inside of him, of the concern Neil felt for him, of the knowledge that at least one person out there seemed to give a damn about what he felt – as impossible as it seemed and as much as he wanted to deny it most days.

/ _Truth_./

For a moment Aaron appeared indecisive as the words sunk in, almost as if for once Andrew was getting to him, but for too long Aaron had railed against Andrew, for too long they had been at odds with each other (well, _Aaron_ had been at odds against him, had held Tilda’s death against him, had held the difference in their magic against him, had seemed to hold everything and anything against him) for it to be that simple. “It’s not like that this time,” Aaron muttered as his fingers flexed if trying to curl into fists. “She’s not like that. Katelyn.”

That drew a loud scoff from Andrew. “Because she has Fae blood in her?” He scoffed again when Aaron started at that declaration. “Did you think I couldn’t figure it out?” Well, Neil had, but there was no need for the moron to know that.

“I didn’t… dammit, she’s not like the others.” For a moment, Aaron’s expression softened. “She’s so smart and kind, she sees the world different from anyone I’ve known. She wants to heal children, to make them better when they’re sick, and she makes me happy.” His jaw clenched when he looked at Andrew once more. “You have Neil now, have declared on him in front of the High Court and everything, so let me have this!”

/ _Truth_./

“There’s no ‘letting’,” Andrew tried to tell the stubborn fool. “Why do you think it changes anything if she has a bit of Fae blood in her? Does she even know that?” When Aaron didn’t answer, Andrew felt the urge to strangle the bastard. “She doesn’t even know, she’s undeclared and unsworn, and you were… you were what? Were you ever going to tell her? How long could you hold out on your mortal little fling?”

“Dammit… I… _dammit_!”  Aaron took to pacing around the garden in clear frustration and snatched at a blooming rose – and got a blast of pixie dust for that, which made him cough and back away in a hurry as the pixie guarding the bush made its displeasure known. Meanwhile, some of the tension inside of Andrew loosened when he felt Neil return to the knowe with a sense of accomplishment, hopefully bearing a few cases of whiskey in that fancy pouch.  “She’s a changeling, I know that much, I can tell because of my magic. She has some sort of healing ability, it’s mostly latent but it’s there.” His expression took on a stubborn turn as he stared at Andrew. “She’s one of us.”

/ _Truth_./

Someone just didn’t get it, did they? “She has a human family and human friends. Let me see if I can figure out what’s going on in that pathetic brain of yours which makes me ashamed that I’m related to you.” He ignored the glare sent his way with ease. “You were going to date her, win her trust and all that shit, and… oh, knowing how slow you move on this stuff, a year or two down the road try to dazzle her with some lame-ass spell and reveal the truth about what you are, which _always_ goes down so well.” For once, Andrew didn’t hold back on the sarcasm. “If by some chance she didn’t have a mental breakdown upon the revelation that magic and Fae are real, what do you think she’d do? Turn her back on the mortal world, leave behind her family and everything to join you here? Because that’s what has to happen, brother-mine,” he reminded the fool. “Once she realizes what she is, she’s fully in our world, and she can’t be out there on her own and a liability to _us_ , oh no.” That was something Andrew would never _allow_. “So it ends now, before it gets that far.”

/ _Truth_./

Aaron shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be that way,” he pleaded. “I… it’s not all or nothing, dammit!”

/ _Not-truth_./

“Yes it is.” Andrew almost felt a bit of pity for his brother, almost. “It’s been over fifty years, Aaron, it’s time to accept things. _You are Fae_. There is no ‘half and half’ when it comes to doing things the Fae way and you know that!”

/ _Truth_./

“But things are changing!” Aaron shouted at him. “Look at what’s happening with the High Court! How people are breaking away from it, how they don’t want a bunch of old Fae to decide their lives anymore! Look at you!” Aaron pointed to the torc around Andrew’s neck. “Who would ever think that a _changeling_ could wear such a thing?”

/ _Truth_./

“Leave me out of this,” Andrew warned.

“Or that someone as fucked up as Neil could be the Unseelie king-“

“Leave him out of it, too.”

“Or Kevin the Seelie king,” Aaron continued, while the torc repeated ‘ _truth_ ’ inside of Andrew’s head. “If _you_ have any sort of power, why can’t you change things for me, your own brother? Why can’t you do one _good_ thing for me for once?”

/ _Not-truth… and truth_./

Andrew could only look at him in silence for a minute or two after that, while Aaron had the grace to appear ashamed. “I hadn’t realized I’d never done anything for you in the past,” Andrew finally said. “My mistake.”

Aaron flinched at the words as he rubbed the side of his neck. “I didn’t mean… hell, that’s not how I wanted… why is it always so difficult when it comes to you?” he asked in a plaintive manner. “All I want is to study human medicine, to figure out a way to make it work with Fae magic and create something new, to make something _better_. Kevin’s right in that they’re inventing all these amazing things, and I think I can help both of our races if I do this.” He gave a bitter smile as he held up his right hand and his magic flared for a moment. “Maybe there’s a reason why you got all of the magic.” Then his expression turned serious. “I want to do that, and I want to do it with Katelyn. I’m serious about her, and if you’re serious about Neil then you’ll understand. I don’t know why you like the freak-“

“Don’t,” Andrew warned.

“-but you have someone so let _me_ have someone,” Aaron continued. “You seem to have some authority now for some insane reason, so help me out, dammit!”

/ _Truth_./

“I’ve heard enough,” Andrew said after another long pause. “Now don’t do anything that’s going to fuck things up for the rest of us.”

“Did you even fucking hear me?”

Andrew ignored his brother as he walked away, the spirits acting as a buffer to keep Aaron from following. There were some insults shouted at his back, but he was used to it so he ignored them as well, and sent a spirit off to collect a bottle of that whiskey from Neil since he wasn’t going to visit the shadow walker just yet. Oh no, he decided to go see what Bee was busy doing.

He crossed paths with Wymack along the way, and at first the Daoine Sidhe appeared ready to say something – chew him out, more likely – but took one look at him and gave a muttered ‘we’ll talk later’ before stomping away. Fine by Andrew (well, that ‘later’ would be more like ‘never’), who continued to Bee’s work room where he found the Leannan Sidhe occupied with some sort of potion or another.

“So, did it work?” she asked him by way of ‘hello’. “How was Neil?”

“He whined a good bit of the time we were there but no throwing up so it’s an improvement.” Andrew had the spirits mostly behave as he poked at some sort of dark purple plant; its leaves furled into tight rolls at his touch. “Can you come up with something that’ll render him silent?”

“As much as I adore you, I’m trying to stay on the good side of a pack of shadow wolves and a horde of pixies, so ‘no’,” Bee told him with a heavy dose of amusement. “You’ll have to manage that by yourself.”

A few ideas came into Andrew’s head just then, most of them provoking a lazy wave of interest and desire from Neil in return to his own emotions, which he tamped down on for the moment. “I see Kevin’s cowardness is spreading, how disappointing.”

“Ah, I prefer to think of it as a sense of preservation, but different points of view are good.” Bee hummed a little as she sprinkled what looked to be sulfate into the potion. “Speaking of Kevin, if you’re trying to drive him half-mad by refusing to acknowledge the whole ‘three kings’ thing, your devious plan is working.”

/ _Truth_./

“Only half?” Andrew sniffed as he left the plant alone and folded his arms over his chest, his fingertips resting on the hilts of the blades he’d forced himself not to pull on ‘dear’ Katelyn earlier in the day. “I’m upset at myself, I was aiming for full-on madness by now.”

/… _not-truth?_ /

“So kind of you,” Bee remarked in that wonderfully dry manner of hers as she removed the potion from the small flame beneath it – oh yes, that small bite of censure when she was probably brewing something to give an enemy terrible waking nightmares for a century or two, that was dear, sweet Bee for you.

“Does the fact that Wymack was taking your name in vain and Aaron all but swearing that he’d be an only child soon have anything to do with you needing that potion today?” she asked once the white, viscous potion she’d been making was poured into a bottle.

/ _Truth_./

“Perhaps.” Andrew picked up a piece of malachite for a moment only to toss it aside when the spirit finally returned with the bottle of whiskey – a very dusty, old bottle of whiskey. “Where the hell did Neil get this and how long was it sitting in some ‘cache’?” he asked aloud as he examined the bottle. The glass was thick, making him think it was very old, the top sealed with what looked to be cork and wax, and the writing on the label faded enough so it was difficult to read.

“Hmm? Let me see it.” Bee took the bottle from Andrew and gently rubbed the dust off with the sleeve of her dark blue blouse, uncaring about the mess, then examined it for a moment. There was a quick flare of gold across the lenses of her glasses and she smiled. “Ah, yes, yes! I haven’t had any of this in _years_ , the distillery isn’t around anymore. If Neil has some more bottles, I’ll gladly trade him for a few.”

So there had to be a story behind them, especially since Neil had told Andrew that he’d mostly drank cheap mortal things as a make-shift anesthetic, but it could wait until later. He watched as, after giving Bee a nod, she opened the bottle and poured them both some whiskey, the scent of smoke and peat moss filling his nose when he took a sip.

“An interesting tidbit,” she told him after making a pleased little sound once she’d tried it. “Whiskey only ages when in the cask, not in the bottle. Twelve years old this is, give or take the ten or so decades it spent wherever Neil or, more likely his mother, stashed it. Though a preservation spell on the lot probably helped.”

Considering how smooth the stuff was, Andrew had a feeling that Mary probably had done it so she had something to bribe either Fae or humans (‘ _truth_ ’) with in case of need. “For once the woman did something right.” He reached for the bottle to pour himself some more.

Bee eyed him for a couple of seconds and sighed. “What’s going on with you and Aaron?”

Andrew waited to finish the whiskey before he answered. “He’s fallen for someone in the mortal world again.”

“Ah.” Bee poured herself some more whiskey as well. “I guess that explains his foul mood lately, why he wanted to leave the knowe so badly.”

“It gets worse.” Andrew had a little more since he wasn’t talking without a nice buzz. “This time, he found himself a silly twit with a bit of Fae blood in her.” Bee stilled at that. “From the sounds of it, either the blood’s been dormant for a couple of generations or someone wasn’t honest when they exchanged vows.” He clicked his tongue as he picked up the glass. “Or maybe she’s adopted, who the hell cares? Thing is, she’s a changeling with no clue what she is, what _he_ is, and is utterly unaffiliated with any court or knowe.”

“That’s not good.”

/ _Truth_./

“Oh Bee, your way with words just leaves me flabbergasted,” Andrew drawled. “We’re going to start calling you ‘Wymack, Jr.’ very soon if you keep this up.”

“Why haven’t I warded that door against you?” she asked, though the question sounded rhetorical.

“Because who else would you dazzle with these brilliant bon mots?”

“Perhaps I’ll start by practicing that silence potion on you,” she warned, but she smiled as she spoke and the torc whispered ‘ _not-truth_ ’ in Andrew’s head at the same time. As she poured them both more whiskey (Neil _better_ have more bottles of the stuff), her expression turned contemplative. “Still, it really isn’t good, the situation with Aaron. That’s a weakness waiting to be exploited.”

/ _Truth_./

“Wow, so nice that someone realizes that. Have fun trying to get it into Aaron’s thick head.” Andrew tossed back the whiskey before he looked around the work room. “I suggest using a hammer or a cudgel.” He paused to think about it while Bee frowned. “Cudgel would probably be better.”

“I’ll try my usual method first since it’s normally not as messy,” Bee said as she leaned back in her chair. “You know, it’s long past the time that you two finally got over the whole ‘Tilda’ thing.”

/ _Truth_./

And that was the cue for Andrew to leave. “There is no ‘Tilda’ thing, not for me. She was a manipulative, abusive bitch who ignored my warning to leave Aaron alone so I killed her, end of story.” He picked up the bottle of whiskey and shook his head at Bee’s frown. “No, that is _it_. You do your shit on Aaron, who never saw her for what she really was, who never accepted that I did what I promised him I would do.”

“Andrew… I would think by now you would realize after all these years with Aaron and Nicky that things aren’t so easily defined when it comes to family.” When the spirits took to knocking things over and he gave her a cold look for those words, she shook her head. “I’m not defending what Tilda did, I’d never do that, I’m just trying to say that it’s not so easy to accept the fact that even though they abused and hurt you, that you’re to feel nothing for a person. Emotions don’t work that way. Family doesn’t work that way.” Bee gave a sad little laugh. “Things would be much simpler if they did.”

/ _Truth_./

“I’m not going to let his fucked up feelings for the woman who abused him harm him and everyone else here,” Andrew warned.

/ _Truth_./

“Fine, but don’t let your hatred for her and how she did her best to ruin your lives cloud you to what might be best for Aaron,” Bee pleaded. “That’s all I’m asking.”

/ _Truth_./

There was nothing Andrew could say to that, so he gave her a slight salute before he headed out the door with the whiskey bottle clutched in his left hand. For those unlucky enough to cross his path on the way to the willow tree out in the garden, including a Brownie sent by Kevin… well, they got the hint to leave him alone after a second or two.

Though once the spirits pushed aside the willow branches, Neil smiled at him and motioned first to the empty spot on the ground nearby and then to the stack of bottles by the tree trunk, what had to be almost twenty of the things. The idiot’s emotions were pleased and happy and a little anxious, the latter of which faded when Andrew sat down near him and flicked at a white rosebud that had been threaded into his hair. “You’ve been holding out on me?”

“There wasn’t much need for me to go for the caches in the mortal world because I could find most of it on the Dark Road – they didn’t have the stuff I really needed like ingredients for spells, those I had to fetch myself,” Neil explained. “And things were bad enough that I just figured it was easier to just steal. But now with the potion, there’s a few others I can fetch as long as they’re still there.” He grew a bit wistful as he looked over at the bottles. “Mum always insisted on stashing various items away so we’d have what we needed wherever we ended up. Most of it is things like this, is stuff we could trade for supplies or assistance, a few emergency items and a little gold, since we always kept the magic on us.”

/ _Truth_./

“Well, we’re definitely tracking down whatever alcohol she put away,” Andrew informed him as he uncorked the one whiskey bottle. While he drank, he could feel Neil’s curiosity and knew his friend wanted to know what was going on with him and Aaron… but Neil didn’t push and Andrew wasn’t willing to deal with it that night, just like he wasn’t willing to deal with Kevin and the whole ‘the Fae need us to step up and help out’ shit the coward (well, partial coward) had been spouting lately.

He just wanted to sit there drinking the fine whiskey with the spirits quiet around him, leaning against Nuit who was a nice and warm backrest with Neil tucked against him while he flicked small pebbles at the pixies in a game of sorts while they flitted around – if he managed to hit one of them, they got to throw the pebble back and the little bastards were stronger than they looked. Neil laughed at their antics while Jorea chided her people for their lack of agility (or so Andrew assumed, he was picking up the sibilant language in bits and pieces – mostly the insults considering he heard them so many times in his regard) or cheered them on.

It was a mostly peaceful evening, and he wanted to enjoy it before everything turned to shit. Considering that the Moriyamas were determined to take Neil (and Kevin) away from him, some of the Fae were planning an uprising which he wanted no part in yet seemed to center somewhat around him, Aaron was being a love-struck fool to the nth degree and Kevin wouldn’t _shut up_ about the damn heir thing… it was only a matter of time before everything blew up in Andrew’s face. So yes, enjoy it while it lasted.

/ _Truth_./

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> I feel like there should have been more Kevin. Next chapter, I promise. But had to do something with Aaron (there will be more there as well). 
> 
> All right, so, what's in progress? I have some of the next Raven's Partner fic done, some Dragon!Andrew fic. I also have to get a owed fic out for the ExyorDeath zine in the next week or two (OMFG the artwork for that is going to be amazing - all the artwork!). So basically... I'm hoping to sorta keep on track for posting but I'm not 100% certain what or when, and it'll probably be a couple of weeks before more Heartlines.
> 
> As always, thanks so much for any comments and kudos!  
> *******


	15. Go to War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Yep, we're getting close to wrapping this up! I mean, there's still a couple of chapters to come (depending on how far I want to go with this), but there finally seems to be an end in sight. I think.
> 
> Hopefully this chapter flows all right, it was a bit of fits and starts to get it out, to the point I worried about getting it done on time.  
> *******

*******

“You have to talk to him,” Kevin told Neil as he leaned against the oak tree, his arms crossed over his chest and a disgruntled expression on his face. “He listens to you. Tell him that the Fae need us, that we were chosen for a reason!”

“ _Does he ever become quiet_?” Jorea asked while Neil worked on yet another hex; it was getting to the point where he dreamed about making the things, which was better than his usual nightmares but _still_.

“ _It doesn’t seem that way_ ,” Neil told her before he sighed at the scowl directed at him by one very annoyed Tuatha de Danann. “Andrew only ‘listens’ to me about things he finds amusing or wants to do in the first place, so I fail to see why you think he’s going to change his mind just because I ask. Also, the Fae have gotten along all these years without us, I don’t think they’re going to accept us just because we’re wearing some inherited pieces of jewelry.”

“They’ll accept you because you have the shadow wolves,” Kevin argued, just like he did every time so far they dealt with this topic. “Because Andrew’s powerful and can make them tell him the unaltered truth, and because I know what they want.” He held up his left hand which bore Titania’s ring for a moment. “They’ll accept us because _we’re_ the heirs.”

“I don’t want to be the heir,” Neil muttered as he handed Jorea the just-completed hex. “If I could figure out a way to pass on this thing while still living,” he held up his right arm with the silver gauntlet wrapped around it, “I would.” His father had insinuated that there were other potential heirs out there, after all. Unfortunately, he’d also insinuated that there was only one way to pass on the damned things, and Neil wasn’t ready to end his own life just yet.

Kevin shook his head as he pushed away from the tree’s trunk, but stopped himself from coming too close to where Neil sat on the thick low branch between the wolves stretched out on the ground, the pixies flying about and… well, there hadn’t been a repeat of what had happened in the mortal world that one night, but Kevin and Neil were still on guard around each other, especially when Andrew wasn’t around to snap Neil back to ‘normal’ or whatever. “Dammit, you have the gauntlet for a reason.” He motioned to the pixies as he gazed at Neil. “You’re protecting _them_ , so why not the rest of the Unseelie?”

“Because we claimed him first,” Jorea snapped as she rained pixie dust down on Kevin. “He’s _ours_.”

Wonderful, Neil thought to himself as he rubbed at the piece of silver around his right wrist which was part of the whole problem. ‘Owned’ by pixies… well, it was better than the Moriyamas, he supposed. “Do I have any say in this?”

“ _No_.”

He glared at Kevin and Jorea before he dropped to the ground. “Then the two of you work this out,” he declared before he slipped into the shadows for some peace and quiet, certain that Ombré and Nuit would follow. For a moment there was a pang of longing for the Dark Road, but he placated himself by going to Abby’s workshop so he could have a cup of tea with the healer.

She smiled upon seeing him, as always, something he still found a little odd. “Kevin bothering you still?”

“I don’t understand why he wants to rule so much,” Neil admitted as he sat down at one of the benches by the many tables in the large room.

“It’s probably not so much that he wants to rule but that he feels a sense of responsibility,” Abby explained as she fetched one of the canteens containing water from the Dark Road so she could heat up enough for Neil’s tea. “Between him being Kayleigh Day’s only child and so powerful in magic, he believes that he should be doing something, that he has a legacy to uphold.”

The only legacy Neil had ever had was one of death and running, of twisting truths and casting curses so was it any wonder that he didn’t want to be the Unseelie king? “I don’t have a problem with him being the Seelie king,” he admitted. Kevin… Kevin could be annoying and frustrating with that single-minded focus with his, with the way that he could be blinded to certain things, but on the whole he was a good man. Most of his flaws were from being raised by the Moriyamas; he wasn’t inherently cruel or selfish.

That didn’t mean that Neil didn’t want to throttle Kevin at times under his own consciousness, but he’d rather have Kevin in power than a long list of other people.

“I just don’t want to rule alongside of him,” Neil continued while Abby added some sort of herbal concoction of what smelled to be rose petals, spearmint and orange peel, among other things to the waiting teapot. While the tea steeped, she reached into a tin for some sort of biscuits to feed Ombré and Nuit.

“No, you don’t strike me as the type who would want that attention and responsibility,” Abby said once she sat back down near him. “I don’t think you’d be bad at it, but you need to be comfortable with such obligations to do your best job.” She smiled at him, the expression so warm and full of affection that Neil still didn’t understand – why was it for him? What had he done to earn it? “What do you want?”

He toyed with the gauntlet as he thought about that question. “I want to be left alone. If I can’t go back to the Dark Road then I suppose I want my own knowe eventually.” He’d reclaim his mother’s once he settled things with Wymack and figured out a way to keep himself from swearing to another person. Because of his shadow walking ability, perhaps he could work out a way for him to stay at Night’s Haven and Andrew to remain at the Foxhole Court – that or they could split their time between the knowes.

Neil wasn’t used to planning for the future past the next city to reach, the next stash to visit or the next portal to use, things like that. Now he had a bond with Andrew, was sworn to a knowe and had people depending on him… it was all so confusing and frightening.

Abby gave him another reassuring smile as she poured him a cup of tea while Ombré rested her chin on his knees. “You don’t have to figure everything out right away, you know. No one… er, well, no one besides Kevin is pressuring you to make a decision right now, and you can always change your mind.” She hesitated a moment before reaching out to squeeze his right hand, aware that he was still cautious about being touched. “You need to do what’s best for you.”

What if he didn’t know what was best for him? His mother would say to run and never stop running, to not let anyone use him or tie him down. Uncle Stuart would say to go to Shadow’s Edge or his mother’s knowe and forget about the Foxhole Court, to forget about _Andrew_.

Andrew… well, Andrew would probably tell Neil to stop being an idiot, but beneath the gruff teasing his message would be the same as Abby’s, most likely. Maybe a comment about how Neil didn’t know what was best for him because he let a bunch of pixies and shadow wolves boss him around, but once he did figure it out, to stick with it.

“That’s probably going to take some time to figure out,” he said while rubbing Ombré’s ears as Nuit pawed at Abby’s feet in a clear sign of wanting more biscuits. The healer laughed as she went to fetch some more.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to hold you to a time limit.” When Neil gave her an arch look, she laughed some more. “Okay, maybe Kevil will try, but I think you can tell him to leave you alone.”

“That or I’ll dump him somewhere far away without any teleportation stones on him,” Neil threatened while Ombré wagged her tail in approval.

“That works too, though I think David might disapprove.”

Neil was sipping his tea and watching Abby grind some herbs when Aaron entered the workroom, covered in pixie dust and his arms full of lavender and chamomile. “Dammit, I had to figure out how to un-jinx myself from- oh, _you_.” He glared when he noticed that Neil was there. “Your damn pets are getting out of control!”

“They’re not my pets,” Neil told the changeling as he set the mug of tea aside; Ombré and Nuit moved to sit in front of him in a clear protective manner.

“They’re usually around you and they didn’t get this crazy about stuff until you showed up. Put a damn leash on them so I can grab a few herbs without having to recite all of Shakespeare’s sonnets while standing on one leg!”

That had been another of Renee’s suggestions, which had surprised Neil since he hadn’t suspected her of being a fan of the ‘Bard’. “Learn not to overharvest the herbs and you should be all right,” Neil shot back; the pixies were fine when Renee, Abby and Bee collected herbs because they didn’t take more than they needed and never the newer growth.

Aaron’s expression grew flustered at that and he dumped the stalks of herbs onto one of the work tables, which prompted a frown from Abby. “I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job!”

“He’s right,” Abby chided her assistant. “The pixies wouldn’t be upset if you did it right.”

Aaron was obviously upset by the reprimand, as gentle as it was, which only seemed to make him even angrier with Neil. “What are you, part Siren? I thought you were shadow walker and a death freak, but with the way you have-“ All of a sudden, the changeling was shoved backwards, which let Neil know that one of Andrew’s spirits were in the room. “Dammit, let him stand up for himself!”

Yes, let Neil defend himself, he thought as he took a step forward with his right hand outstretched, the gauntlet extended along his lower arm and the shadow wolves flanking him with their teeth bare. Let him teach a silly, weak changeling how to respect his betters.

“ _Neil_.”

The sound of Abby’s concerned voice pulled him back to himself, made him realize that Aaron was staring at him with hazel eyes gone wide while the spirit whirled around just out of reach. He forced his hand to lower, tried to make the gauntlet retreat while Nuit gave him a slight nudge to his left hip. “I….”

“Finish your tea,” Abby encouraged him with a shaky smile. “It’s supposed to make you feel better.”

“Oh.” Neil stepped back to the table so he could pick up the mug, and was grateful to find the silver on his right forearm slowly retreating.

He’d finished the tea and had his mug refilled when Andrew entered the work room; by that point Aaron seemed to recover enough to start plucking the flowers from the stalks he’d harvested, amid cautious glances Neil’s way. The changeling healer didn’t appear pleased to see his twin arrive, but he didn’t say anything as Andrew headed straight for Neil.

“I thought that thing was behaving,” Andrew said in lieu of ‘hello’. Once he got within reach, he held out his right hand to Neil, his emotions the same mix of concern and indignation that they’d been the last few minutes.

Hesitating only a moment, Neil switched the mug to his left hand and extended his right; he was mindful of letting others touch the enchanted item now because of… well, what had just happened, but it seemed fine with Andrew. “I thought so, too.”  He still didn’t know what had happened a few minutes ago with Aaron; he hadn’t been filled with rage and jealousy like he’d been with Kevin, just driven to reach Aaron and… well, he wasn’t all that certain what he’d do to Andrew’s brother, other than it probably wasn’t good. “It wasn’t as strong as it was back in that mortal city.”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Aaron asked as he put aside the lavender in his hands. “What happened before?” He looked back and forth between Neil and Andrew, and would have approached them except that a spirit blocked him. “Dammit, answer me!”

“Now _I’m_ the one who doesn’t feel like talking,” Andrew said as he nodded to Neil, who smiled a little as he used his talent with the shadows to pull the both of them to the space beneath the willow tree while Aaron cursed them out, the mug of tea still in his hand.

Of course Jorea and about a dozen other pixies were there waiting for him, and he put up with her fussing over him while Andrew poked at the gauntlet. “It’s fine,” he assured her while pixie dust filled the air. “I know you were just being… well, you spoke a bit hasty,” he went with in the end.

“She walks all over you,” Andrew said as he twisted Neil’s right arm about, which made Neil think the bastard had been listening in on that conversation as well.

“How do you get anything done when you’re spying on people all day?” he asked as he attempted to tug his arm free, only to be reminded about how strong Andrew was.

“Unlike some people, I have enough brains to multi-task.” Andrew finally let go and looked up at Neil with a slight frown. “And someone needs watched when he’s got a history of being taken over by a bit of silver.”

There wasn’t much Neil could say about that, could he? So he sipped at the tea (now sprinkled with pixie dust, it was a good thing he’d been breathing the stuff in so much that he’d built up an immunity to it) while Andrew’s expression smoothed out and something almost like guilt flowed across their bond. After a few seconds, Andrew let out a slow breath as he rubbed at the back of his head. “That… didn’t come out right.”

“Really?” Neil lowered the mug and gave his friend a slight smile to show that he was only a little upset just then. “I can’t say that I understand what’s going on, but I’m trying to figure things out. It doesn’t like it when I’m under attack. The stronger the threat, the more chance it’ll take over.”

“Aaron insulting you is hardly a threat,” Andrew pointed out as he once more reached for Neil’s right arm.

“I didn’t like him bringing up my father’s bloodline,” Neil admitted. He didn’t like anyone doing that.

“Ah.” Andrew stroked his fingers along the gauntlet, which for some reason made Neil shiver; he could smell the smoke clinging to the necromancer, could see the faint stubble on Andrew’s chin and upper lip, so pale and coarse. The black shirt Andrew was wearing fit tight over his broad shoulders and left his collarbones bare, the golden torc glinting on his skin as if a beacon for where Neil wanted to brush his lips. “Distracted much?”

“What?” Neil forced himself to meet Andrew’s heavy-lidded gaze as he was tugged closer, as faint amusement and warm desire flowed into him – desire he felt as well. The mug fell to the ground as Neil stepped even closer to his friend, as Andrew’s right hand settled on his left hip. “Yes,” he said in answer to the unspoken question.

“Presumptuous,” Andrew mocked even as he let go of the gauntlet to thread his fingers through Neil’s hair and tilt his head into a kiss that made Neil groan in delight. Even as want and pleasure built between the two of them, as Neil shivered at the thumb stroking along his right ear.

They sank down onto the ground while Andrew’s tongue flicked against the roof of Neil’s mouth, as his left hand slipped beneath Neil’s loose sweater. There were high-pitched complaints from the pixies while they flew away and swaying leaves as the spirits skittered around, but all that mattered to Neil right then was Andrew’s warm, solid body pressing against him.

“Yes?” Andrew asked as he tugged at the hem of Neil’s sweater while he knelt between Neil’s legs, his eyes darkened with the desire that made Neil feel a bit dizzy and languid.

“Yes,” he breathed out, and had to pull his hands away from his friend’s shoulders so the garment could be yanked over his head. After Andrew tossed it aside, he hesitated for a moment before removing his own black shirt. Once it was gone, he nodded to Neil as a sign that it was all right to reach out to touch.

“You’re weird.”

“Hush,” Neil told him with a smile as he ran his nails lightly down Andrew’s chest, the expression deepening at the pleasure he felt across their bond even if the bastard’s expression didn’t change. Then he dragged his fingers back up through the pale blond chest hair which lightly covered the firm muscles. “You just humor me, right?” He kept smiling as he leaned in to brush his lips against the sensitive skin of Andrew’s neck, satisfaction and delight spiking at the rush of pleasure that action caused.

Only to find himself gasping as nimble fingers skimmed along both of his ears, and pulled away to scowl at the bastard only to gasp against when Andrew took to nibbling on the tip of his left ear. Neil thought he went to curse him out of for that… but not even he could understand what he was saying after a couple of seconds.

As always, pleasure coiled tight in him from the feel of Andrew’s mouth on him, Andrew’s hands stroking so gently along his body as they lay stretched out beside each other on the mossy ground beneath the willow tree. He never felt trapped or coerced when he was with his friend, never felt any fear – there was just the incredible sensations that Andrew could make him feel and the echoes of emotions over the bond they shared.

There was his leg draped over Andrew’s hip as they rocked together, Andrew’s hand pressed against the small of his back to urge him closer as he shuddered from the intense sensations overwhelming him. “Stop?”

It took Neil a couple of seconds to realize what he was being asked. “No,” he stuttered out as he dug his fingers into Andrew’s muscular shoulder, only to pause when he felt an echo of the pressure. “I-it’s fine.”

Andrew stilled for a moment, then nuzzled Neil’s temple as he rocked harder against him. “Just fine?”

For a moment Neil felt an urge to smack a certain necromancer, at least until Andrew rocked harder against him until he gasped at the ecstasy coiling inside of him. For a moment he almost spoke up, almost asked Andrew to stop… but he wasn’t being held down, he wasn’t be restrained and it felt so _good_. There was all this want/pleasure/concern/yearning twisting up inside of Neil until he could barely breathe from the surplus of emotion, the ecstasy consuming him. The firm thrust of Andrew’s hips, a trembling stroke against his ear was enough to make it _too much_.

He cried out as he came, his eyes closed and right arm wrapped around Andrew’s upper back, and overwhelmed as he was by everything, there was a second echo of bliss just as Neil caught his breath. Andrew panted against Neil’s forehead while his hand fisted into the small of Neil’s back, his hips slowly stilling as they held on to each other and their emotions… there was some confusion (Neil’s), concern (Andrew’s), languidness (both), and a bit of embarrassment and discomfort (both).

“Uhm….” Neil didn’t know what to say or do just then, as he’d never… well, they’d done a lot of kissing and touching, but nothing like _that_. He’d never willingly… it had been very nice, doing it with someone… he supposed it was meant to be like that. “That was-“

Andrew’s sense of discomfort grew as he started to pull away. “We need to-“ He suddenly went still and frowned at Neil. “Your arm.”

“Hmm?” Neil lifted his head a little and went to move his right arm… only to see that the gauntlet had extended at some point and grown spikes; they weren’t embedded into Andrew’s back _yet_ , but if he tried to move again, his friend would be pierced.

Neil felt a bit of panic upon seeing them. “But I – you didn’t-“ Andrew hadn’t _hurt_ him.

“Neil.” Andrew frowned and reached up to give a gentle flick to Neil’s right ear. “Idiot fox,” he said in a blank manner, which helped to cut through Neil’s emotions. “Calm down and move it. _Carefully_.”

Forcing himself to take a deep breath and focus on the fact that Andrew wasn’t (too) upset with him, Neil pushed aside the guilt and panic to do what he’d been told. He had to keep his arm straight as he moved it away from Andrew’s back to prevent any of the spikes from touching his friend’s skin. “I’m… I don’t know why that happened,” he admitted after catching himself. “I was fine with everything. _Honest_.”

Andrew let out a slow breath before he stood up; at least one spirit went flying through the curtain of leaves as he pulled Neil to his feet. “If it wanted to hurt me, it would have done so. I think it was keeping me from moving away, if anything.”

That sounded ridiculous, but before Neil could argue further, he was tugged toward the garden. “Come on, bath first, then we figure this out,” Andrew insisted.

Considering that his pants were beginning to feel rather unpleasant, Neil agreed with that and bent down to grab his pouch and sweater to pull on before they left the sanctuary of the willow. Ombré and Nuit were waiting out past the fall of branches for them, along with Jorea and the pixies. However, Jorea wrinkles her nose at them both and flew off ahead to the bathing pools with the rest of the tiny Fae following her.

It felt good to wash off and soak in one of the hot water pools with the wolves and pixies ‘standing guard’ for them, and after a couple of minutes, Neil floated to the far edge which placed him closer to Andrew’s pool. “It’s back to normal,” he told his friend as he held up his right wrist. “Now what do you think happened?”

Andrew tilted his head back against the edge of the pool to look at him, blond hair slicked back from his handsome face. “All I know is that it seems to attack other people but it doesn’t mind me for some reason.”

Neil considered that as he chewed on his bottom lip for a couple of seconds. “Kevin said it might contain some of Maeb’s memories. Her memories or emotions. She supposedly loved Oberon and didn’t care for Titania.”

That earned a derisive snort from Andrew. “From what I know, Titania and her were involved in one hell of an ongoing catfight.”

“No, not quite.” Neil sunk down a little more in the hot water. “For some reason, Oberon took both of them as his queens – legend has it that Maeb was with him first, and then came Titania. Maeb born him his first children, the most powerful Firstborn – the Luidaeg, the Green Man, my grandparents.” He thought about all the stories his mother had told him, first as a means to keep him quiet back at Baiting’s End and then as something to focus on all those years on the run. “It’s said that she was jealous over him taking a new queen and Titania jealous over the fact that Oberon never set her aside, that she continued to bear him children.”

“If they had any common sense they would have left him,” Andrew remarked as he stared up at the knowe’s cloudless sky.

“Yes,” Neil agreed. “I never understood that part myself, what tied them all together.” His mother said something about all three of them being among the first, the oldest… but it still didn’t excuse what Oberon had done to his queens, to Maeb. But maybe Neil felt that way since he was Unseelie.

“So if Maeb’s emotions are in that thing, it should have stabbed me through the back when it had the chance,” Andrew continued. “If it _is_ confusing me with that bastard Oberon because of this lousy torc.” He lifted his right hand from the water in a lazy wave to motion at the gold band around his neck.

“Maybe it’s trying to wrap its figurative head around an asshole like you being the new Oberon,” Neil teased. “I mean, I know he wasn’t that great a person, but _you_?” He laughed when Andrew splashed water his way.

“Don’t make me come over there and drown you.”

“Hmm, a lazy asshole at that,” Neil murmured, and laughed some more when he was splashed again; despite Andrew’s slight frown, he could feel his friend’s amusement over their bond.

They soaked a little longer while one of Andrew’s spirits returned with some clean clothes for him (that must have made for an interesting sight, though Neil supposed the rest of the Foxes were used to the spirits fetching odds and ends for the necromancer), and then returned to the willow tree so Andrew could indulge in a little whiskey before dinner. Neil grabbed some fruit to take with him as he followed his friend into the main building with the shadow wolves trailing along and Jorea on his shoulder.

Nicky and Kevin were waiting for them in the common room, at a table covered with a wide selection of food and several bottles of wine; the brownies certainly indulged Kevin, and the rest of the knowe as well. “We were wondering if you were going to join us,” Nicky called out as they approached the table.

Andrew looked around the room – Dan, Matt, Betsy and Wymack were seated together and waved to them – but didn’t say anything until he sat down. “Where’s Aaron?”

“Something about some potion that needs to be monitored,” Nicky explained. “And Renee’s off with Allison.” He grinned as he reached for a fluffy roll. “Those two have been hanging out a lot lately, have you noticed that?”

“Renee seems to be helping Allison get over Seth,” Neil commented, which made Nicky snicker and a flare of amusement over his bond with Andrew. “What?” he asked as he rubbed one of the grey fruit with a napkin.

“Renee’s not being all altruistic there,” Andrew said after a moment’s hesitation, and clicked his tongue when Neil stared at him. “She likes Allison.”

“But… oh.” Neil blinked at that as he considered the two women and how they’d acted with each other the last few times he’d seen them.

“ _The Valkyrie knows how to pick a good one_ ,” Jorea said as she flittered down to the table to snatch up a piece of spiced, buttered carrot as big as her arm. “ _You could learn from her_.”

Neil wasn’t in the mood to hear about Jean just then, so he bit into the fruit while Andrew must have picked up something (or knew Jorea well enough) to glare at the pixie. Nicky looked at his cousin and made a show of waving his butter knife in the air. “So! All this romance in the air, eh? Allison and Renee! The two of you!” He gave a nervous laugh when Andrew shot him a flat look. “Aa-ah, so, what about you, Kevin? You’re the only single one around here,” he asked while Andrew’s eyes narrowed at what Neil took to be a general reference to Andrew’s twin. “You got a sweetie in mind at last?”

“What?” Kevin nearly splashed wine onto the table since he’d been in the middle of filling his glass at the moment. “Why me?”

“Because there’s more to life than spells and swords?” Nicky sighed as he put the knife and roll aside. “Seriously, haven’t you noticed that yet? What about that one Tuatha de Danann, hmm? Jeremy?” He grinned when Kevin almost dropped his glass that time. “You always follow him around like a puppy whenever we deal with Rheman.”

“I don’t… he’s a friend… Jeremy is… uhm.” Kevin became flustered and did his best to drain the glass of wine in one go as Andrew piled what looked to be mashed potatoes and the rest of the carrots on his plate, while Jorea hummed and munched on her ‘meal’.

Nicky nodded in a satisfied manner as he helped himself to some sort of stew. “Yeah, right, the whole ‘friends’ thing,” he said with a good bit of sarcasm. “It’s all right, we understand, you’re at the right table, sweetie.”

“What table is that?” Neil asked Andrew.

“Shut up and eat your weird fruit,” Andrew told him in that flat manner of his while exasperation flowed over their bond. Neil gave him a sour look for that then turned to Ombré in a silent supplication of ‘one bite, just _one_ bite’. Of course she ignored him and rested her head on his lap so he could scratch her nose.

Meanwhile, Kevin finished his wine and snatched at the bottle for more. “I don’t… nothing’s going on with Jeremy!”

“Because he’s pining after Moreau,” Andrew said as he pushed his food about on his plate before scooping up a small amount of potatoes.

“I’m not- fuck off,” Kevin snarled before drinking from the bottle.

“Ooh, the moody Leannan Sidhe, I get it,” Nicky cooed. “Diverse tastes there, Day, I gotta hand it to you. No chance of getting bored while you’re out there playing the field.”

While Kevin sputtered and coughed up wine and Andrew munched on his dinner, Neil sighed as he rubbed Ombré’s ears. “ _Why am I here for this_?” he asked the she-wolf in old Fae.

Nuit came over to nudge at his elbow and gave a hopeful look at a plate of sliced roast beef. “ _Of course, to serve you_.” He sighed as he set the platter on the floor and shook his head at Andrew when he was given a flat look for feeding the wolves. “Eat your damn potatoes.”

“Someone’s grouchy,” Andrew remarked as he poked Neil in the left cheek with the forefinger of the hand holding his fork. He pulled his hand away just in time to keep from being scratched by Jorea.

Meanwhile, Kevin wiped at his face with a napkin and took to scowling at everyone. “You’re all assholes and I’m not int… I’m not involved with anyone.”

The right corner of Andrew’s mouth twitched the slightest bit. “Careful there, Kevin.”

For a moment it looked as if Kevin would respond, before his shoulders slumped forward and he frowned and pulled a plate of roast chicken toward him. Neil glanced around the table at a smiling Nicky, a bored-looking Andrew busy eating and a subdued Kevin before he decided to rub Ombré’s ears some more.

“ _You need better friends_ ,” Jorea informed him as she continued to gnaw on her carrot.

“ _You may be right_.” He winced when Andrew poked him in the cheek again. “What?”

“Share with everyone,” Andrew told him. “Don’t be ignorant.”

Neil stared at him for a couple of seconds while he debated throwing the hard seed from his fruit at the asshole, until he felt a slight pulse of amusement and couldn’t help but smile. “You should know about that.”

“You talk about a lot nonsense,” Andrew said as he resumed eating, and when Neil looked away, it was to see Nicky smiling at the two of them in an oddly tender manner.

“Well, it seems that Kevin still has some issues to overcome, but you two are doing fine.” Nicky’s smile widened until something seemed to smack him in the back of the head. “Ow! Andrew, dammit, why are you so mean?”

“Why are you such a moron?” Andrew asked in return, only to frown when the wine he’d poured himself sloshed around in its glass as the scent of dahlias and paprika filled the air. “Really?”

“Oh never mind,” Nicky muttered as his magic faded away. “I just thought you’d be less grumpy now that you have a cute boyfriend.”

“Uhm….” Neil glanced around for the closest shadows at that comment. “I think I forgot something out in the garden.” Such as his desire to not hear this conversation.

Unfortunately, Andrew latched on to his left arm before he could leave. “No, you’re staying for this,” he was informed while Kevin nodded.

“Yes, you never took the chance to refute Andrew claiming you on the dance floor so you’re stuck with him,” the tall bastard informed Neil, which made him wonder if the gauntlet wasn’t right about the whole ‘let’s kill Kevin’ thing after all. “Even if he’s doing an awful job of courting you.”

“I miss the Dark Road _so much_ ,” Neil declared to no one in particular, even though Nuit whined in sympathy. For his troubles, Andrew picked up the remaining piece of fruit and shoved it at his chest.

“Eat that and be quiet,” the necromancer told him while giving Kevin a cold look. “And how about I gift him with a nice shiny ring, still attached to a hand?”

“Ew, trying to eat here,” Nicky complained while waving a spoon of his stew in the air while there was a predictable scowl on Kevin’s face.

“That’s not very funny, and you need to take this seriously, both of you do as a matter of-“

“Jean Moreau,” Andrew said in an almost sing-song tone of voice, which immediately derailed Kevin’s rant. Neil would find it amusing, except he braced himself for more of ‘leave him the hell alone, Neil’ which seemed to follow mention of the Leannan Sidhe’s name for some reason.

Except that time, Kevin once again sputtered and after a couple of seconds, rose up from the table to go sit with Wymack and the others. Andrew watched him leave with a bored expression before he resumed eating his mound of mashed potatoes, filled with a sense of satisfaction.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Nicky said as he watched Kevin’s back for a moment. “What’s that about?”

“Denial,” Andrew said between bites.

“Oh, it’s so sad when they’re stuck in that stage.” Nicky shook his head while he used his talent to have wine flow out of the bottle closest to him into his empty glass. “Is it a Moriyama thing? Kevin’s a pureblood, I wouldn’t expect him to have a problem with it.”

Neil frowned at that, until Andrew shook his head. “He means Kevin liking another guy. Humans are still hung up on that.”

“Ah.” Neil pondered that explanation as he bit into the fruit while Jorea went into a rant about foolish humans; he supposed that had to do with Nicky’s comment about the table earlier. While relationships with the opposite sex were sometimes preferred because of the chance of having children, the Fae by their nature were varied in form and temperament so of course they realized that their relationships would never be so limited. “I don’t think it’s that.” Neil shivered as he remembered what had happened at Evermore.

Andrew reached over to give his nape a gentle squeeze while Nuit and Ombré pressed against his legs and Jorea tugged at his hair. “No, I think he’s just being his usual coward self and refusing to admit his feelings,” Andrew agreed. “He won’t be able to do that for much longer.”

“What, you mean he’ll be making a big scene on the dance floor, too?” Nicky asked as he motioned to the two of them. “We need to have a party or something!”

“No.” That came out a bit louder than Neil had intended, but considering what had happened at the last social gathering he’d intended, he wasn’t in a hurry to take part in another.

“Aw, you’re no fun,” Nicky told him with a pout while he swirled around his wine by moving his finger above the glass. “I’ll throw you a good one!”

“No, you won’t.” Something about Andrew’s expression made Nicky’s exuberance falter, right before Andrew stood up and grabbed the basket of rolls. “Come on,” he told Neil.

Only too happy to leave, Neil hurried to his feet, still in the process of nibbling on his fruit, and followed Andrew out of the common room and soon the building. They didn’t say anything until they were back out in the garden. “It’s nice and quiet on the Dark Road.”

A mix of annoyance and amusement washed into Neil. “We’re not going back there just yet.”

“I’m just saying.” Neil hummed a little as he ate the last few bites of his snack. “Other than the occasional need for homicide, I could eat my meals in peace.”

Andrew gave him a bland look as he grabbed a roll from the basket. “All right, I think I need some more whiskey after a statement like that.”

“I’m learning that you always need whiskey.” Neil laughed when the roll was thrown at him, managing to knock it aside for Nuit to catch in mid-air. “What?”

“Little foxes should be quiet,” Andrew remarked while Jorea took to insulting him in Pixish; Neil supposed that ‘little fox’ was better than ‘idiot’ and just hummed in happiness as they went back to the willow tree to spend the rest of the night peacefully in each other’s company.

*******

Andrew sat on the grass smoking a cigarette and watched Neil make a fool of himself with Matt, Dan and the mutts by chasing a damn ball back and forth over a green swath of the garden. They’d been at it for what had to be about an hour, and he could feel a bit of exhaustion creeping into the happiness and excitement that flowed over the bond like some insidious disease. No one should feel that way over a stupid game.

/ _Truth?_ /

No one should look so damn attractive with their face and the tips of their ears flushed with exertion, auburn hair even more a tousled mess from running around like a maniac, long legs flexing as they leapt about and a genuine smile or two flashing now and then. Matt had actually crashed into Dan the first time Neil had smiled at him upon snatching away the ball with a clever bit of footwork between him and the mutts.

More than a little disgusted by the entire thing (even if he could appreciate the display), Andrew had to admit that… well, that Neil appeared to be doing all right. There hadn’t been an increase in nightmares after what they’d done the other day, hadn’t been any more weird shit from the gauntlet, hadn’t been Neil seeming as if he regretted letting things move that far between them.

For himself, Andrew was still trying to figure things out; he hadn’t intended to take things beyond the carefully defined limits he’d set up, the kissing and beginning of slowly mapping each other out, to learn what was all right and what wasn’t, only to feel as if something had _pushed_ him for more.

He didn’t like that thought – either that something had influenced him or he’d lost control.

/ _Truth_./

Big fucking help there, he directed at the torc, and waited to see if it settled on one or the other. That it was oddly silent at the moment wasn’t reassuring at all, especially about something which was so important to him.

He wouldn’t allow something to control him, to make him out to be like those bastards from his childhood. And if it was himself to blame? Then Neil deserved better.

Yet after Dan managed to trip Neil with the root of one of the larger plants and win back the ball, Neil remained smiling on the ground while Ombré licked his face and Nuit tugged on the sleeve of his grey tunic. Matt picked up Dan to spin her around in the air, which seemed to signal the end of the stupid game, so Neil made a pitiful groan as he allowed Nuit to pull him upright and wobbled his way over to where Andrew was sitting before falling down next to him.

“You should play with us next time,” Neil said with a tired grin.

“No, I shouldn’t,” Andrew insisted as he flicked ash toward the idiot.

“It’s more fun than weapons’ practice with Kevin,” Neil tried. “Oh! We’ll get him to play, too! You can tackle him, then.”

/ _Truth_./

“I can kick his ass at weapons’ practice, too,” Andrew said with an offended sniff, even if it was a bit of an exaggeration. He could kick Kevin’s ass only part of the time at weapons’’ practice.

/ _Truth._ /

He could also melt a damn piece of metal down at any time.

/ _Not-truth_./

Andrew was about to go on a quest to find where the hell Oberon had fucked off to just to ask the bastard why he’d created such an annoying thing.

/… _truth_?/

Neil smiled as he nudged his left shoulder into Andrew’s right, amusement and curiosity flowing across their bond. “Is it being talkative again?”

“It’s giving me more incentive to figure out a way to remove the damn thing and turn it into coins so I can buy a new car or something,” Andrew muttered as he rubbed at his neck.

“Ah.” Neil’s emotions leveled out as he held up his right hand, which had been rubbing a very undignified Nuit’s belly until then. “I think I’d prefer talking to taking over.”

“Hmm.” Andrew considered that for a couple of seconds. “It’s a constant babble in my head compared to a few times in the last couple of weeks. No contest.”

“Well, mine mainly seems to target Kevin, so you might have a point.” Neil’s smile returned as he leaned a little more against Andrew. “He’s a bit annoying with the whole ‘king’ thing.”

/ _Truth_./

“He needs a new hobby.” Andrew nudged Neil away. “And you need a bath.” Not that sweat-covered shadow walker didn’t have some appeal.

/ _Truth_./

“So nice.” Still Neil shoved himself onto his feet with the mutts quick to rise as well, and after sending a couple of spirits to clear out the pools just in case anyone else was there, they went off so Neil could clean up after acting like a hyper idiot.

Despite Andrew only sitting on one of the benches, Neil didn’t seem nervous or self-conscious about stripping down and washing off in front of him, though they had bathed together several times by that point. He merely gave Andrew a questioning look for not joining in as well.

“I didn’t act like a starving dog chasing after a bone,” Andrew said as he lit another cigarette.

“No, you just were your usual lazy self,” Neil shot back before he stepped into the one hot water pool. “Okay, this is one thing that the Dark Road doesn’t have,” he admitted before he groaned in delight. “I need to learn some spells to heat up water like this.”

Part of Andrew wasn’t happy to hear Neil talk about the Dark Road so much, to know that his friend would return there in a heartbeat if it were possible. Then he reminded himself about how Neil was tied to it, how he still needed food from there to eat and it was in his blood, literally. He was Scáth Sidhe, was a shadow walker, and the Dark Road had been important to Maeb.

What mattered was that Neil also talked about Night’s Haven as well, about opening up his mother’s knowe as a sanctuary for the pixies and other Unseelie, and referred to the Foxhole Court as ‘home’. He seemed to be thinking of a future in the Fae world at least part of the time.

Andrew probably should be thinking of the future as well – Wymack seemed increasingly busy due to other knowes sending messages to him because of the fallout from the whole High Court thing, lesser Fae and changelings were showing up at the Foxhole Court hoping for sanctuary and Aaron was still in a snit over his mostly mortal girlfriend. On top of it all was Kevin and his ‘Three reborn’ bullshit, which was making Andrew understand why Oberon and his queens had disappeared because just the possibility of being made to deal with all the Fae made Andrew want to run away.

There was a pulse of agreement from the torc right around the time that the pixies caught up with Neil, filling the air with the sound of their high-pitched voices and glimmering dust. Neil sighed as he climbed out of the hot water with obvious reluctance and dried off; once he was dressed, Jorea and a couple of other pixies descended upon the idiot to glitter him up and braid his hair.

“Every day? Really?” Neil asked in a plaintive manner while Ombré sneezed from all of the pixie dust. “Couldn’t you have left me alone today?”

“We have guests,” Jorea informed him while she floated in front of his face. “Look good, you must.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew frowned at that while he checked with his spirits; he hadn’t sensed anything through his wards and none of the spirits had warned him, so one of the Foxes must have brought the visitors into the knowe. “Who is it?”

“Seelie,” Jorea said with a sneer. “Tuatha de Danann.”

/ _Truth_./

Neil gave Andrew a curious look while Andrew sent the spirits off to investigate. “Probably Rheman,” he guessed even though he wanted to be certain. “Stay close to me while they’re here.”

That made Neil’s eyes narrow and the wolves shift about him with their ears flicked back. “I’m not helpless,” Neil said while anger bubbled over their link.

/ _Truth._ /

“At least until someone lobs another light spell at you,” Andrew reminded the idiot, which made the anger spike hot and vicious. “I don’t care, stay near me.”

For once Jorea didn’t give him any shit while Neil cursed in old Fae, she just said something that made the other pixies fan out around them as they left the bathing area. Neil was in a pissy mood for a minute or two, until a spirit came racing back to Andrew and confirmed that it was Rheman in the knowe, along with Knox.

“I wonder what they want,” Neil mused as he shifted closer to Andrew.

“It better not be more of their ‘down with the High Court’ shit.” Andrew wanted left out of the mini-coup being planned by the two older men, and wasn’t surprised when he found Kevin in their presence once they got to the main building.

“Good, now I don’t have to go looking for you,” Wymack said as he nodded at Andrew and Neil. “James has something to tell us.”

/ _Truth_./

Everyone was gathered in the main lobby as if they’d been ready to go outside to find Neil and Andrew; Rheman and Knox were armed with swords and wearing the red and gold colors of their knowe, which stood in stark contrast to Kevin’s black attire and the bright orange of Dan’s jersey and Wymack’s tunic.

“Perhaps we don’t want to be found,” Andrew remarked as he motioned for Neil to leave; before they could step back outside, Wymack held up his right hand. “We’re working on saving our sight and sanity.”

“You need to hear this, you mouthy dwarf, so stay.”

/ _Truth_./

Dammit, that was perilously close to an order, so Andrew gave the Daoine Sidhe a flat look as he took to leaning against the wall while Neil glanced back and forth in a nervous manner, his magic flaring for a second before he settled next to Andrew with Jorea grumbling and the mutts on guard.

“Well? Building a sense of anticipation for us? Consider me giddy with it,” Andrew drawled as he folded his arms over his chest while resignation from Neil crossed over their bond.

Wymack rubbed at his forehead a couple of times before giving Rheman a weary look. “Word of advice - if you ever come across a smart-ass bastard in an iron-lined cell, think _real hard_ about what you’re getting into before taking him on.”

“That’s actually more than one word,” Neil was helpful to point out. “So, multiple words of advice. And it’s more of a warning, I believe.”

 _/Truth_./

Dan appeared to be doing her best to stifle a laugh, Knox was grinning from ear to ear and Rheman… actually, he seemed conflicted about how he should feel while Wymack glowered at Andrew and Neil. “You’re both pains in my ass, you know that?”

/ _Truth_./

“Yep.” Andrew knocked his right heel into the wall. “Still don’t see why we’re stuck here, though.”

“Because it’s reached the tipping point,” Kevin said as he stepped forward. “As of today, over half the North American knowes have broken away from the High Court.” He gave Andrew and Neil a pointed look while Wymack’s expression became serious and Rheman nodded. “They’re never going to get their power back, not now, not as long as we’re around.”

/ _Truth_./

Anger flared inside of Andrew. “What’s this ‘we’?” he demanded to know. “I haven’t done a damn thing to encourage them to break away and I don’t intend to do anything, either. Last I heard, neither did Neil.” He glanced over at his friend, who shook his head while agreement flowed over their bond. “Don’t go putting words in our mouths or make any promises that we don’t intend to keep.”

Kevin clenched his left hand, the one bearing Titania’s ring and all the scars, into a fist as he glared. “Dammit, Andrew, this is real! You can’t pretend that nothing is happening anymore! We have to-“

Neil rushed forward and only the fact that the gauntlet remained a solid band around his right wrist kept Andrew from going after him. “We don’t have to do _anything_!” he told Kevin, his head tilted back to look the tall Tuatha de Danann in the eye. “I escaped Evermore so I could be free! I thought you left there for the same reason, so why are you letting a piece of metal dictate what you _have_ to do?”

For a moment Kevin’s expression faltered as he stared at Neil, and then his resolve seemed to return. “Because it’s more than a piece of metal and you know that.” He nodded to Jorea on Neil’s shoulder and the rest of the pixies flittering around the room while he motioned to the shadow wolves ever-present at the idiot’s side. “Because you already have those whom you’re responsible for, who look after you as well.” He nodded again when Neil drew back a little at that. “I saw it, you know. Saw Tetsuji use his influence on the other knowes and Fae to do what he could to control our people. I don’t want him to get away with it anymore – him or Riko.”

“He did what he could to manipulate the High Court,” Wymack said as he came to stand beside Kevin. “Had his hooks in there somewhat, a couple of them under his control. We know that he has some sway with the regional councils after what he did to Andrew. We know that some of those knowes remaining with the High Court are most likely the ones aligned with Evermore as well.”

/ _Truth_./

The anger continued to seethe inside of Andrew with each word spoken, each explanation voiced. “So what, you felt that a civil war was a good idea? Because those go over so well.” He pushed away from the wall while the spirits knocked over the vase filled with flowers on the table by the door and tugged at the various tapestries on the walls. “You might as well have painted targets on us all.”

/ _Truth_./

Dan frowned while she approached as if to put herself between Andrew and Wymack. “No one’s done anything. The other knowes have broken off on their own!”

/ _Truth… and not-truth_./

Oh, wasn’t that reassuring to hear? “Hmm, you didn’t happen to go on about heirs or any shit like that, did you?” Andrew asked as he gave Rheman a cold look.

The dark-haired Tuatha de Danann appeared uncomfortable for a moment, which was as good as an admission of guilt. “We merely said was that David has all three of you sworn to him.”

/ _Truth_./

“Wait, what?” Wymack glared at his so-called friend while Knox grimaced and the pixies took to muttering in their language while they circled the two Tuatha de Danann. “Why the hell did you do that? Why say anything at all?”

“Because the word is already out there,” Rheman told him with a regretful expression. “News is spreading fast that the Three’s prized possessions are back in the Fae realm, that they’ve found new bearers who can wield them. That there’s young Fae who look a lot like the Three, and two of them can trace back their lineages back to the Queens.” Rheman’s eyes glanced over at Neil then Andrew. “That shadow wolves have been seen away from the Dark Road and someone’s raised a long-dead Fae. People are anxious and frightened yet hopeful at the same time, David. They need to know that they’re right to hope.”

Neil shook his head. “They have no right to put their hope in us.”

/ _Not-truth_./

“Maybe not, but you’re Maeb’s grandchild,” Knox said with that ridiculous smile of his. “You wear her gauntlet and- hey!” He blinked in an exaggerated manner like the moron he was when Neil took a step into the nearest shadow and disappeared, along with the mutts, while anger and hurt filled Andrew. “What – _hey_!” Knox spun around as a couple of spirits slammed into him.

“Don’t bring up his family like that again,” Andrew told the asshole while Wymack, Rheman and Kevin glared at him. “What? I can break bones next time.”

/ _Truth./_

“Somehow it always gets down to violence with you,” Wymack complained as he shook his head. “And this isn’t resolving anything, dammit. We don’t want a civil war but something has to be done to keep the High Court and the Moriyamas from regaining the knowes that are standing up for themselves.”

/ _Truth_./

Someone was sounding like a broken record right about then. “Sure.” Andrew paused to light a cigarette while he had a spirit go search for Neil; the idiot was still in the knowe and had calmed down a little, but he wanted to make sure that nothing happened while they were apart. “I fail to see why I or Neil need to be involved in these plans.” He nodded to Kevin while he blew out some smoke. “Have the poster child for all things Fae lead the charge without us.”

“Because it’s the _Three_ ,” Kevin gritted out. “Three sovereigns, three enchanted items, three bloodlines. Just one doesn’t work very well.”

/ _Truth_./

“Oh, well then, you’re screwed,” Andrew told him in a bland manner while Dan groaned and Wymack looked as if he was coming down with a migraine.

/ _Truth_./

“What the hell else are you going to do?” Kevin all but yelled as he jerked his left hand through his dark hair. “Sit around drinking and smoking? Hanging out with Neil and doing your not-courting? Fight with Aaron? This is important, Andrew! This matters!”

/ _Truth_./

“Not to me.” Not even the torc could argue with that as Andrew waved at everyone when he turned to leave.

“Dammit, I can’t… I don’t know what you want, not for certain, but I know what Aaron and Nicky want,” Kevin called out. “Do you think they’ll ever get those things unless you step up and do what you were born to do?”

/ _Truth._ /

Andrew’s lips pulled back from his teeth the slightest amount as he glanced over his shoulder to look at the former coward. “Oh Kevin, take it from me, be careful listening to what a bunch of shiny metal tells you. Especially when it’s about to cause you so much pain.” He refused to allow anyone, even someone he’d sworn to protect, to use his family against him like that.

Kevin’s warm complexion turned ashen but he didn’t back down. “You can change things for the better if you would just give a damn for once!” His jaw jutted out as he waved toward the front door. “No one would care about you and Neil if you-“

Andrew closed the distance between them in between a couple of heartbeats and slammed Kevin against the wall. “Don’t go there,” he told him in an even tone of voice even as the spirits whirled around them. “Don’t.”

For a moment something made Kevin’s eyes flare a bright green and his lips pull back in a sneer. “It always comes back to _him_ , doesn’t it? What’s so special about _him_? What makes you so willing to throw everything away for a shadow-crawling-“

The anger grew sharper as Andrew slammed Kevin against the wall once again, but before he could repeat the action, the scent of sunflower and saltwater overwhelmed Andrew’s senses and then Knox managed to push his way between Kevin and Andrew somehow.

“Stop it, okay! We shouldn’t be fighting each other,” the blond Tuatha de Danann exclaimed as he steadied Kevin; for a moment Kevin gazed at him with those bright green eyes and then he blinked a couple of times and slumped against the annoying bastard. “What’s going on here?”

“Ask Day, he’s the one being the bitch queen reborn,” Andrew said as he once again went to leave; when Wymack gave him a look, he shook his head. “No, I’ve heard enough.”

Wymack sighed at that. “Think about it, you grumpy dwarf. There’s a reason you’re wearing that thing,” he nodded at the torc. “That the three of you came together here and it’s _not_ to give me fits on a daily basis.”

/ _Truth_./

“Where’s the fun in that,” Andrew drawled as he gave Wymack a two-fingered salute. “Ta.”

That dealt with for the time being (he had a feeling that Rheman and Knox weren’t going to leave anytime soon), he went in search of Neil and found him up in the oak tree with the pixies all around him and the mutts lying on the ground beneath him.

“I guess it didn’t get any better after I left,” Neil called out.

“No.” Andrew leaned against the trunk and looked up at his idiot. “Though it doesn’t require much of a genius to figure that out.”

Neil somehow managed to pull both of his legs up onto the branch to hug his knees to his chest without affecting his balance – it was a sturdy branch, but not _that_ big. “I hate feeling as if things are being pushed on me,” Neil said in a quiet voice. “For most of my life I didn’t have any choice. My father dictated everything while I lived in his knowe, my mother made all of the decisions when we were on the run.” He grew quiet as he rubbed his fingers along the gauntlet. “The only time I felt free was on the Dark Road.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew considered that as he lit a cigarette. “And now?”

Neil’s smile was tinged with sadness, the same with his emotions. “There’s my oath to Wymack and the bond with you.” While Andrew did his best not to react to that, the sadness lessened. “It’s not… I don’t feel trapped, really, but they’re obligations, I guess you could say.”

/ _Truth_./

‘Obligations’. Neil had sworn to Wymack in part because of Andrew, and was stuck with the bond because he’d agreed to help Renee heal Andrew. “Do you regret it? The bond between us?” When was the last time that Andrew had pushed Bee or Renee to break the thing?

Jorea chittered something to Neil as he rubbed at the gauntlet, his thoughts pensive and gaze distant. “I… I wish we could do something about the being apart thing, but you know… I think I’m forgetting what it’s like to not feel your emotions all the time.” Neil looked at Andrew with a shy smile on his lips. “I don’t… I… my mother taught me to watch out for people, to pay attention to what they’d do, to be aware of what went on around me. We needed to be on guard while on the run. But I never really _understood_ other people.” He sighed a little as he gave up on toying with the damn piece of jewelry. “The bond helps me understand you, just a little.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew considered that as well, considered the slight embarrassment and concern he felt over the bond, the underlying affection which made him want to both walk away and pull a certain idiot down from the branch to kiss him breathless. He wasn’t the greatest at understanding people beyond the most basic of impulses – the need to hurt, to claim, to sate, to defend – so he had to agree that the bond helped him with Neil, too. Well, most of the time.

/ _Truth_./

“I suppose it’s the next best thing for dealing with you, considering that you didn’t come with an instruction manual,” Andrew said after he blew out a couple of smoke rings which some of the pixies darted through while Neil gazed at him in confusion.

“Uhm… okay?” Neil frowned while Jorea grumbled something that sounded very unpleasant and threw an acorn in Andrew’s direction, only for it to be batted aside by a spirit. “I wish the bond handled translations.”

“I don’t think even Google handles ‘idiot fox’ to ‘English’,” Andrew told him.

Neil gazed at him with those big blue eyes of his for a couple of seconds before muttering what Andrew was certain was ‘why did I ever leave the Dark Road’ in old Fae ( _truth_ ), and everything seemed all right. Neil was exasperated and confused yet affectionate and happy, and Andrew…

Andrew didn’t want to lose any of this because of a bunch of people who didn’t care about him and whom he couldn’t care less about either. Other than the Fae here at the Foxhole Court, his ‘people’ (which was a joke because a good bit of the Fae would reject him because of his human blood) couldn’t be bothered with him, so why should he care now that he had a damn piece of gold around his neck? No, he didn’t want to rule, he was only concerned about keeping the few people under his protection safe.

The Fae had done without their precious Three for long enough, they could continue doing without them for a few more centuries.

/ _Not-truth_./

*******

Neil had just buried the remains of the meal he'd shared with the shadow wolves (since they'd brought him back something fresh from the Dark Road) when Kevin came near, his steps halting until Neil nodded in greeting. Nothing was said as Neil brushed the dirt from his hands and went over to one of the benches scattered throughout the gardens to sit, unwilling to invite Kevin to the willow tree for some reason.

"So, uhm, no Andrew?" Kevin asked as he took to fidgeting with the hilt of his sword while standing nearby instead of sitting next to Neil.

"He's busy helping Bee with something." Neil felt a little annoyance at the question - it wasn't like he and Andrew did everything together.

"The rude one isn't here," Jorea sniffed as she gave Kevin a cold look while she tugged on a strand of Neil's hair. "Go away if you want him."

Kevin blinked at that before he grinned a little. "I see they're still not a fan of his." Or of Kevin’s, really.

"No, not quite." Even Neil had to smile just a bit at the ongoing friction between Andrew and the pixies. "Do you want him for something?"

"No." Kevin shook his head and gave up on the hilt to fidget with his ring instead. "I, uhm, figured it might be a good idea to talk to you."

Weariness filled Neil at that statement, which sparked concern and curiosity over his link with Andrew. "If you're going to start on the whole heir nonsense, just go away."

Kevin's expression grew chagrined as he forced his hand away from the ring so he could fold his arms over his chest as if in a deliberate attempt to keep from fussing. "Look, I don't want to fight about this, but... you're a pureblood, Neil. Try to tell me that you weren't raised to handle responsibility, to take over for your... for your mother, at least," he finished weakly as he caught himself from mentioning Nathan Wesninski.

Neil gave his friend a weak smile as his right hand sought out Ombré’s nape, to feel soft fur and warm flesh, to touch something that would never harm him. "My mother taught me a lot of things, but we were too busy running from my father for what you're talking about." He was quiet for a moment while Ombré pushed up against his hand and Nuit leaned against his legs, all in an attempt to keep him from losing himself in those awful memories. "All I know about power is that the more you have, the more harm you can do."

"But you're not like that," Kevin said in a quiet voice. "You don’t abuse the power you have.”

"Really?" Neil gave him a bitter smile as he held up his left hand while he let slip his control over his father's magic and noticed Kevin's slight flinch. "Then why did all those Fae back at the High Court argue about who got to hold my leash, hmm? I didn't hear anyone call them liars when they said that I needed a keeper, just that it shouldn't be the Moriyamas or the High Court." That still stung whenever he thought about it, standing in front of everyone and being told that he was too dangerous to remain free on his own cognizance.

Kevin shook his head in disagreement. "You're powerful, very powerful, and that scares them, I won't argue that, either." He motioned to the shadow wolves who remained pressed against Neil. "But you could destroy a knowe with a simple command and you don't. That tells me that you're not going to abuse that power."

There were times when Neil dreamed of stepping into Evermore with the pack, of unleashing them while he tracked down Tetsuji and Riko. Unfortunately, his mother had taught him well, had taught him about the Fae and all their complicated laws and rules - the better to slip through them and bend them whenever they could. Neil knew that as it stood, he had no reason to declare outright war against the Moriyamas.

As it stood.

"It still doesn't mean that I know how to lead," he told Kevin. "Other than anything but a race." He winced when Jorea yanked on his hair. "Ow!"

"You do better than you think," she scolded him. "You are our king."

"See, someone has faith in you," Kevin said with a grin. "And Andrew's a natural leader for all he'll deny it. He looks after his people, he always has, and he's a good judge of character."

"I don't know, he lets you live," Neil muttered as he rubbed at his sore head.

"Very funny." Kevin scowled for a couple of seconds before he seemed to push aside the acronymity. "I'm not saying that we need to step in and fix everything at once, but maybe if we show the others that we're unified, that we're willing to work together and intervene... maybe we can make things better."

That sounded terribly vague to Neil, sounded like it would lead to them getting in over their heads, but once Kevin got his mind set on something he could be difficult if not impossible to dissuade. "Why do you care about this so much?"

Kevin was quiet for about a minute while he studied the ring, during which time Neil picked up on a spirit not too far away watching over the two of them. "Because my mom... from the little I remember, she cared." He looked up at Neil with green eyes filled with sadness. "She cared so much about everything, which was why she was always hunting down new spells and enchanted items. It wasn't enough finding the knowes so the Fae could have safe havens again, she knew how much we'd lost over the centuries and wanted to gain back as much of it that she could." He blinked a couple of times as if to stave off tears. "She told me that there'd already been so much lost to the mortal world and mortal bloodlines that no more time could be wasted." His strong jaw clenched along with his left hand. "Then she died, and now I have to wonder about Tetsuji, about how he took me in and kept me tied to him."

Tetsuji, who had a Fae bound to him who could kill with little more than a touch - oh yes, Kevin had reasons to wonder indeed. "I would hope that you're it doing for yourself," was what Neil settled on saying after a minute's silence while he rubbed at Ombré’s ears, while Jorea fluttered her wings in agreement.

Kevin shook his head as he twisted the ring around on his finger; the scars seemed less pronounced on his left hand in the last couple of weeks. "I am - it's not all for my mom." He looked at Neil with that strong sense of conviction which always made Neil want to sigh in weariness. "I want to stand on my own, to be more like my mother and Wymack."

Neil could understand why Kevin wanted to be like his mother, but the Wymack thing seemed a little odd to him. Still, he supposed there were worse men for the Tuatha de Danann to want to emulate. "You don't have to be the Seelie king to be more like them."

"No, but I can't run from my obligations, either." Kevin gave up on the ring to motion to the gauntlet on Neil's wrist. "Neither should you."

"Okay, now this is getting rather circular and close to an argument," Neil pointed out as he gently pushed Ombré’s head from his lap and stood up. "I decide what are my responsibilities, not some stupid piece of silver."

"It's more than that and you know it!" Kevin made to reach for Neil but stopped short when Nuit snapped at him. "What about Jean!"

Neil stilled upon hearing the Leannan Sidhe's name. "Don't bring him up," he warned Kevin. "You don't know as nearly as much as you think you do about him."

Once again Kevin's jaw took on a stubborn jut as he stared at Neil. "I grew up with Jean, I think I know him rather well. At least, better than someone who knew him what, a couple of months at the most?"

"You knew him with Riko between the two of you," Neil reminded Kevin while he struggled to control his emotions, to push back the awful memories of his time in Evermore - in Riko's hands, of being trapped in iron and that small room. "You never really knew Jean."

Something dark flashed across Kevin's face at that accusation. "I trained with him, spent years at his side as we practiced our spells and sword work, as we strove to be our best. What do you have with him that can equal that?"

Neil gave Kevin his father's smile as Ombré and Nuit flanked him on either side, as Jorea fluttered near his right ear. "I know what it feels like to be Riko's property," he answered in a quiet voice as he held up his left arm with the sleeve sliding down to reveal the scars left by the iron restraints. "I know what it feels like to face Riko's anger more than once," he taunted, "to have him do more to me than break a few bones. To have him try to break _me_. Only Jean dealt with that for years, and all the while you were blind to the worst of it."

Kevin cringed from Neil's words, from his smile and his scars but didn't back down. "I... dammit, I'm trying to be there for him now!”

“Why? Because _now_ you’re afraid of someone taking him away from you?” Neil sneered at Kevin as the feeling of ice crept along his right arm, as anger and vindictiveness and jealous tightened in his chest.  “He’s not even Seelie so why do you care? He’s not yours and never was!”

The green in Kevin’s eyes grew brighter as he began to circle around Neil, his left hand now hovering over his sword hilt. “He helped _me_ first! Whatever he may or may not have done for you, he was the one who got me out of Evermore, he risked that much for me!”

“And you left him there!” Neil summoned his power as the anger grew stronger inside of him, as he thought of the green in Kevin’s eyes fading away forever. “Always the one to let others do the hard work for you, to pay the price!” Always the one to goad others on and to reap the rewards.

“That’s not what this is about at all, dammit! And you’re one to talk when everyone-“

The ground trembled beneath their feet while something shoved Kevin aside; Andrew’s presence was heralded by the strong scent of ivy and fresh earth as well as spirits. “Can I not leave you alone for two minutes? What the hell is up with you idiots?”

The anger and jealousy twisted inside of Neil, along with a sense of heartache and need. “You always show up to defend hu.. him,” he called out as he cradled his right arm against his chest; even though it was covered with spikes once more, even though the gauntlet was creeping over his chest and shoulder and back, as the sharp protuberances didn’t harm him. “It doesn’t matter if it’s his fault or if he started it, you take his side!” Ombré whined and Nuit bared his teeth at Andrew, while Jorea cursed out the necromancer in Pixish.

“He takes my side because you’re being foolish!” Kevin declared as he slid his sword a couple of inches from its sheath.

Andrew’s eyes were almost golden as he glanced back and forth between Neil and Kevin. “I’m not picking between two obvious morons, I’m telling both of you to get your heads out of your asses,” he said in that flat manner of his even as his emotions were ragged with anger and confusion. “What the hell is going on?”

“He’s telling me that I have no right to worry about Jean,” Kevin complained while glaring at Neil, which made Andrew stiffen and his anger spike.

“Still going on about Moreau?” Andrew turned toward Neil with his full lips pressed in a thin line while something acrid and seething burned over their bond. “I thought he didn’t mean anything to you _? Stop it already_.”

Oh, so it was more of that, was it? It was more of Andrew siding with Kevin, of course, was more of _them_ against _him_ , as always. No matter how much Neil gave to Andrew, no matter how hard he tried – and oh how he _tried_ – no matter how much he cared for the bastard and everything, others would always be just as important to Andrew _. Kevin_ would be just as important to Andrew. Meaning that Neil had to look out for his people on his own, had to stand on his own. Had to take the blows meant for them as best he could, because he was always on his own and all they had.

He had to protect them from Kevin… and from Andrew.

“No,” he told Andrew as he flung out his right arm, as the gauntlet spread even more, as the shadow wolves began to growl and more pixies took the air. As his magic grew stronger to counter Andrew’s – as Kevin’s was added to the mix as well. “You don’t tell me what to do. You _never_ tell me what to do!”

Andrew’s eyes were a pure gold as he stared down Neil, the same color as the torc around his neck. “What did I just tell you to do? _Listen to me_.” Spirits whirled around him as if an insubstantial cloak, wild eddies in the air glimpsed as faint swirls and shimmers.

“Always the defiant one, Neil.” Kevin gave him a withering look while shaking his head, disdain evident from his posture and mocking tone of voice. “Always fighting the senseless fights. You need to listen to _me_ , to accept that _I_ know best!”

“ _Never_ ,” Neil swore as his sense of frustration built more and more. “Both of you can bind yourselves in iron before that’ll happen. I’ll never bow down to you.” He’d curse them both for trying to contain him, to control him.

“You’ll listen to-“ Andrew stopped and clutched at his head as something tore through him. “This isn’t… dammit, what are we doing?” Panic, fury and confusion rushed into Neil as he tugged at the torc. “This isn’t _us_!” Andrew took a step toward Neil despite the warning growls of the wolves. “Neil, dammit, stop letting that hunk of metal control you!” He reached out to snatch at Neil’s right forearm, the spirits keeping the protective pixies at bay, and the curse on Neil’s lips faltered when pain from the gauntlet’s spikes biting deep into Andrew’s palm flooded the bond between them.

The emotion caught Neil short, made… wait, no, _was_ he Neil? He struggled with that thought, with the overwhelming feelings inside of him, the terrible sense of heartache and want and hurt, of anger and jealousy and pettiness, and looked up at Andrew.

Andrew… so many of the emotions revolved around Andrew. For a moment Neil leaned forward to brush their lips together in a need for reassurance, for comfort… and then the emotions twisted again, the gauntlet inching over more flesh until he gasped as he pulled away, as he fought against that ‘otherness’ pressing against his mind while Andrew stood there with a bleeding hand and looking at Neil with rare surprise and consternation right before Neil slipped through the shadows.

He retreated to the willow tree, where at first he struggled to control the gauntlet, to force it back into a band of silver along with pushing aside the alien thoughts and emotions. To push back the specter of Maeb in his mind, to do his best to free himself of her influence ( _his best_ ). He assumed that Andrew and Kevin were busy doing the same, considering the concentration and displeasure he sensed over his bond with the former, so that allowed Neil enough time to ward the area around the willow tree before he retreated beneath its branches to curl up with the shadow wolves (Pilier and Danseur had joined him by then) with the pixies darting about in the air.

Andrew tried to come see him around evening, only to be stopped short by the wards. “What the hell? Neil, what are you doing now?” Annoyance and confusion flowed across the bond, even if Andrew sounded bored.

“Go away,” Neil told him as he remained beneath the willow tree, his head resting on Pilier’s warm flank and the rest of the wolves tucked around him. Judging from the faint hiss of Pixish, Jorea had appointed some of her people outside of the tree and they were telling Andrew and his spirits much the same thing.

“We need to talk about what happened earlier, so stop being a dramatic little shit and take down the wards,” Andrew called out, a hint of the growing anger he felt shading his deep voice.

“There’s nothing to talk about, now go away.” It was obvious to Neil what the situation was with them, between them, so what good would talking do?

Andrew was quiet while the pixies chittered at him to leave, as his anger and upset poured into Neil, and then he let out a loud curse. “Back to being a damn rabbit, fine. Enjoy sulking for a while,” he said before finally leaving.

Kevin tried the next day, but Neil ignored him with ease and the pixies took great delight in chasing him off. Abby came by later that night, but the wards weren’t set up against her so Neil spent a few minutes talking to her and assuring the healer that he was fine, that he had enough water and food from the Dark Road. That he just needed some time alone to think about a few things, something he couldn’t do with Kevin going on about being heirs and responsibilities, and especially not when Andrew… well, not with Andrew.

Abby gave Neil a sad smile and a gentle hug while she told him that she understood, and to send a pixie to her if he needed anything.

So it wasn’t a surprise when Renee was there the next day, hovering near the edge of the wards. “Hello?”

In the process of rubbing Danseur’s belly, Neil sighed. “Hello.”

“May I come in?”

Despite himself, Neil had to smile; it wasn’t like the willow tree was a proper abode, though it was more of a real home than of the many places he’d lived in the past. “Yes, you may.” He rubbed Danseur’s belly a couple more times while Renee walked through the thick fall of pale green leaves. “How are you?”

Renee was dressed in pale blue pants loose enough to look like a skirt at first and a darker blue and white top with full sleeves. “I’m well,” she told him with a slight smile. “But I’m worried about you, and I’m not the only one.” She smiled at Ombré and Nuit as she sat next to them, and after holding out her hand to Ombré for a quick sniff, took to rubbing the she-wolf’s ears. “How are _you_?”

“I’m fine,” Neil told her, and at the arch look she gave him, sighed. “I’m trying to figure a few things out.” He held up his right hand. “It’s not easy having an ancestor take over your mind just because you decided one day to pick up a piece of her jewelry and wear it. Especially when you can’t seem to take it off.” He’d tried that a lot in the past couple of days, but much like back in Evermore, nothing worked.

“Yes, Andrew and Kevin has been dealing with that as well – the working on blocking out the former aspects of the jewelry thing.” Renee paused for a couple of seconds as if thinking about what she’d say next. “Don’t you think it might be best to work together on it, the three of you?”

“No.” Neil shook his head as he wrapped his arms around Danseur’s neck, as Jorea took to grumbling about ‘rude ones’ in his right ear. “I think I need a bit of space from Andrew right now.” It was bad enough feeling all of Andrew’s emotions, to sense the confusion and anger and hurt, the lingering want beneath it all.

To know that Neil wanted him just as much.

“All right.” Renee frowned at that and continued to rub Ombré’s ears. “Why do you feel that you need to stay away from Andrew? You do realize that he’s not Oberon, right? That he’d never control you like Oberon would?”

Neil laughed a little at that, the sound weak and mirthless. “But he wears Oberon’s torc, he’s Oberon’s heir.” When Renee’s frown deepened and she went to speak again, he shook his head. “How do I know that… I never wanted anyone before Andrew,” he tried to explain. “And now I want _him_. Like Maeb and Oberon. How do I know that it’s even _me_ wanting Andrew?” he asked, giving voice to his greatest fear.

Something flashed across Renee’s face as she stopped petting Ombré. “Oh Neil… that’s….” She was quiet as she shook her head. “I believe that you were growing close toward him before he found the torc, and I can honestly say that he felt something for you before then, too.”

“But maybe the gauntlet sensed that he was the heir, like it knew that Kevin was one, too,” Neil argued. “Maybe nothing about this was by accident.” Maybe the gauntlet had been influencing him for longer than he’d believed, had made him come to the Foxhole Court that one night, had made him rescue Abby and set things into motion just so Maeb could have her Oberon once more.

He hated how he was so uncertain about everything now, when before he’d felt as if he’d found a place where he might belong, when with Andrew… he hated it.

“Neil.” Renee closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she opened them. “I know you’re confused. I know the gauntlet is throwing a lot of things at you so that confusion is understandable. But Andrew cares about _you_. He doesn’t feel for Kevin in the same way, so if it were history repeating itself, he would be courting you both. Kevin would be interested in Andrew as a lover and not as a friend and fellow ruler, and wouldn’t be torn between Jean Moreau and Jeremy Knox from what I can tell.” That last was said with a slight quirk of the lips.

What? Neil thought about that for a moment while Danseur gave a faint whine and licked at his left cheek. “I… understand what you’re saying, but I can’t help but thinking what I do.” Each time the gauntlet took over, it felt terrible and overwhelming, all the jokes he made about it later aside. He didn’t want to think that the way he felt when Maeb’s old emotions took over held some sort of permanent sway.

“It’s difficult when feelings are involved, but I do believe what you and Andrew feel for each other is genuine,” Renee said with a heartfelt smile. “You have the bond between you, after all. There’s a reason it was created, why it took so quickly and strongly. Yes, you are tied together because of being heirs and your magic, but I think it’s because you’re meant for each other.” Her smile faltered as she nodded to the gauntlet. “I believe the reason why Maeb was so unhappy – and Titania as well – is that those three were never really meant for each other in that sense.”

Jorea scoffed as she tugged on a braid in Neil’s hair. “He can do better.”

“I don’t know, Andrew is a pretty good catch when you think about it,” Renee told the pixie. “The grumpiness and… well, we’ll disagree with each other,” she said while grinning.

“Yes, we will,” Jorea insisted with a disapproving sniff.

“I’m glad you’re willing to talk to me,” Renee told Neil as if Jorea hadn’t said anything. “I hope you continue to feel that you can discuss such things with me.” When he nodded to her, she smiled as if he’d given her a great gift and then went on to talk about what was happening in the knowe with the rest of the Foxes, and to update him on her latest date with Allison.

They chatted about hexes for a little while after that before she left, and Neil felt better for the rest of the day. There was still Andrew in the back of his mind, emotions simmering enough to give him a dull headache, but perhaps it wasn’t as bad as Neil feared. Perhaps he was overthinking things, was assuming the worst.

Renee might be right in that he needed to work things out with Andrew at least, to test how much of it was between them and influenced by the damn enchanted items.

He was gathering up his courage to take down the wards and go seek out Andrew when a couple of pixies burst through the curtain of willow branches, the scent of blood wafting along with them. Jorea leapt into the air to meet them, and Neil rose to his feet when he noticed the injured pixie cradled between them.

“ _It’s Finnius_ ,” Jorea told him, which made fear and concern clench inside of his chest – Finnius had been assigned to watch over Jean.

He stood aside while Jorea and a few other pixies cast some spells on the poor Fae, while others rushed out to the garden to fetch herbs. After a minute or so, Finnius opened his eyes.

“ _King_ ,” he managed to say, his voice weak but pale green eyes fixed on Neil; his wings were in tatters and it looked as if his legs were broken, but Neil didn’t sense any death approaching so hoped that he’d survive. “ _A message from… from Butcher_.”

Hatred was added to the mix constricting Neil’s chest, sharp enough that he had to struggle for breath. “ _What is it?”_

“ _Come home, without the mu-mutts, if Moreau is to live_ ,” Finnius breathed out.

Neil stilled at the ultimatum; part of him had always wondered when Riko or Tetsuji would figure out how to use Jean against him, so he wasn’t that surprised. Part of him had known this day was coming after Jean’s warning in that awful cell, after he’d called off the shadow wolves and spared Riko’s life because of the Leannan Sidhe. “ _You did a good job_ ,” he assured the tiny Fae before he turned away.

Jorea leapt into the air to hover in front of his face. “ _You can’t do this! You can’t! The tall one isn’t worth it!_ ”

“ _Jean’s Unseelie, I can’t leave him there like that_ ,” Neil tried to explain as he prepared himself for what was to come. For what he had to do. “ _And he’s been abandoned too much already_.”

“ _No_!”

Neil merely gave her a sad smile as he went over to his small pile of belongings (more than he’d had in… oh so long) to prepare for return to Baiting’s End while Jorea cursed and the shadow wolves whined and pawed at his hands.

It was time to face his father.

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ******  
> So... yeah. Not much happening there, right? So boring. Thanks for sticking with this mess.
> 
> Now a good time to mention that I'll be getting a chapter or two of Raven's Partner out next?
> 
> As always, thanks for the kudos and comments (what you'd want to talk about after this, I don't know...).  
> *******


	16. The Resistance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! A bit of an early post, but it's a crazy buy weekend and I wanted to make sure this got out there today. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Hmm, no trigger warnings except for violence? And that's more for fighting and Nathan Wesninski?  
> *******

*******

Andrew sat on the floor in his bedroom and held a bottle of whiskey in his hands, half of the liquor already gone. Most of the spirits drifted around the room, hovering near him like anxious minders and unwilling to be far from him for too long. They would lift small items or make the linens on the bed fan about, but didn't cause too much of a mess - it was more along the lines of letting him know that they were there, that he wasn't alone.

He was fine with being alone. It was natural that he was alone. If he was by himself then things like getting bonded to some ridiculous, improbable idiot wouldn't happen, someone who didn't know better than to pick up enchanted objects in mythical realms and drag Andrew off to said realms where he was encouraged to pick up stupid torcs that talked too much and couldn't be removed and... and look what had happened all because Neil had stumbled into his life. All because he hadn't shoved the shadow walker out of the knowe as quickly as he should have upon first sight of those unnatural blue eyes and pointy ears.

There was so much confusion over the bond they shared, confusion and hurt and uncertainty, and what Andrew hated the most about everything was how it echoed what was inside of him, how he couldn't just say 'fuck it, fuck _Neil_ ' when there still was that undercurrent of want and hope beneath it all. When he thought about how Neil hated him or didn't want him anymore, only for the damn torc to go _'not-truth_.'

He'd spent the first night after... after whatever the _hell_ had happened out in the garden trying to remove the cursed thing, trying ever spell he knew and scratching up his own neck as he fought to pry the damn thing off. Nothing had worked, of course, the thing hadn't budged at all and he felt a distinctly annoyed impression in his head over his actions. It had taken Bee coming into his room and braving the spirits to calm him down, to tell him that it wasn't worth harming himself over the thing (yes, it _was_ if it meant getting rid of the damn torc), and to let her try for a while.

She hadn't much luck, either, what a surprise.

She'd tried questioning the stubborn piece of metal, not that it had given up much in the way of answers. It wouldn't let go until Andrew died. It didn't control him... but it was oddly quiet about Oberon controlling or influencing Andrew. It didn't agree that Andrew was drawn to Neil because of him wearing the gauntlet and Andrew the torc, but it acknowledged that they were bound together.

What a fucking joke.

They were bound together, but Neil didn’t want to talk to Andrew, didn’t want to speak to him or listen to what he had to say. Didn’t want to talk to Kevin, either, just sit beneath the damn willow tree with the mutts and the flying pests. Well, sooner or later he’d have to put up with Andrew if he wanted to go back to his precious Dark Road, if-

Andrew drained the bottle of whiskey then threw the empty container aside as he squashed that possessive, controlling thought down with all his strength. That wasn’t _him_ , wasn’t anything he’d allow himself to be, _dammit_! No wonder Neil was confused as hell and didn’t want anything to with Andrew and Kevin after everything with his father and then having been chained up by the Moriyamas, only to find himself saddled with a stupid piece of silver trying to take him over and dealing with two Fae partially controlled by their own bad fashion choices.

After all those years in foster homes, after Tilda and Luther, after the shitty potion that the SEC and the Moriyamas had forced on him, Andrew wasn’t going to allow anyone to control _him_ again, either, especially not some ancient Fae king who had supposedly fucked off centuries ago. He certainly wasn’t going to allow that Fae king to try to control Neil just because he wore some trinket meant for the bastard’s girlfriend – a lover he’d treated like shit for however long.

Neil deserved better than that, and Andrew wasn’t anyone’s puppet.

/ _Truth_./

“Damn right it is,” Andrew muttered as he rubbed at the piece of gold around his neck. “Both of those things.”

He got up to search out a package of cookies when there was a knock on the door; the spirit stationed there informed him that it was Renee bothering him, and not Wymack nagging him to do something, Aaron ranting about his disgusting girlfriend or worse, _Kevin_.

Since Andrew had a few questions to ask the naiad, he had the spirit open the door so Renee could come inside his rooms. “There she is, the one meddler I do want to see,” he called out as he sat down on his bed with the packet of chocolate chocolate chip cookies. “What are you up to now?”

Renee gave him a slight smile as she glanced around before sitting down at the desk on the other side of the room. “Of course you’d have spirits watching over Neil.” She held up a small basket, which she set on the desk. “Some chocolate cherry muffins I made, along with a tea blend you might like. It’s good for hangovers and magical backlash.”

/ _Truth_./

“And did you take anything to Neil?” He didn’t allow himself to ask how the idiot was, instead he forced a couple of cookies into his mouth to bite back on the question.

“No, it seems he’s being looked after by the pixies and the shadow wolves.” Renee folded her hands in her lap and regarded Andrew for a couple of seconds, appearing so prim and proper with her pale hair pulled back from her face and dressed in a dark blue sweater and loose blue pants. “Physically he seems all right, but he’s very confused right now, which I’m sure you can feel. He seems to think that being the Three’s heirs means that something is forcing the two of you to be attracted to each other.”

/ _Truth_./

The delicious sweets in Andrew’s mouth all of a sudden became bitter and dry, and he had to force himself to swallow rather than spit them out. After gagging a little, he glared at Renee. “The damn _idiot._ ”

She held up her hand as if to keep him from cursing out Neil any more. “He mentioned not feeling any attraction for anyone before meeting you, which coincidentally is after he found the gauntlet. I can understand his reasoning, and pointed out that if the three of you were reincarnations or shadows of the Three, that you would also have feelings for Kevin and Kevin for you.” Her lips twitched upward as if to smile while she said that.

/ _Truth_./

“No fucking way,” Andrew gritted out as he thought about _wanting_ Kevin; yes, the Tuatha de Danann was attractive, there was no denying that, but only in the physical sense. As soon as Kevin started talking, he became too damn annoying to tolerate for more than a few minutes. No, Kevin was a friend (more or less), that was all.

/ _Truth_./

Neil… just the thought of Neil twisted up something inside of Andrew, made things he refused to acknowledge burst into life inside of him, made him _want_. It wasn’t even a purely physical, lustful need (though yes, he would be more than happy to make Neil feel good, to continue the slow steps of exploration between them), but a desire to have the idiot next to him with that shy smile on his face.

/ _Truth. Truth. Truth_. _Truth. Tru_ -/

Fine, he got the point, shut the hell up already.

Renee nodded and leaned back against the desk. “Yes, I think I got through to him a little and put some doubts to rest. But he needs some time to think it through, considering everything that’s happening.” She twisted the fabric of her pants between her fingers. “It can’t be easy to deal with all those new feelings and then have Maeb’s dumped on him as well.”

/ _Truth_./

“There has to be a way to rein in that damn gauntlet,” Andrew said as he ran his fingers along his own annoying piece of jewelry, once again wishing there was a way to remove the cursed thing. “It’s getting out of control and needs to be slapped down.”

“Hm.” Renee frowned as she twisted the pale blue cloth a little more. “Out of control… like a jealous woman?” She cocked her head to the side as if considering something. “It’s been worse since Kevin got the ring, right?”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew did some frowning of his own. “Yeah. What are you saying, that whatever bit of Maeb’s in the thing or inside of Neil’s having a snit because of Kevin?”

/… _truth_./ Oh, was something a little hesitant there? Or unhappy about the new topic?

“Well, not so much because of Kevin, but Titania, considering the animosity between the queens.”

/ _Truth_./

“But I don’t _want_ Kevin,” Andrew said in a very slow, clear manner as he struggled not to hit something, as the spirits took to whirling around in place rather than destroy his rooms once he figured out where Renee was going with the topic. “And Kevin doesn’t want me, either.” They’d been together the last couple of decades and nothing had happened between them, other than a lot of traded insults and grudging respect – but _no_ sexual attraction.

/ _Truth_./

“I’m not saying that you do, but as far as Maeb is concerned, Titania is her main rival for Oberon. So she would see the other queen, whatever new form she takes, as a threat to her relationship with him.” Renee gave a pointed look at the band of gold around Andrew’s neck. “Or in this case, Neil’s relationship with you. I’m wondering if in Kevin’s case, since there’s a strong enough of a bond between you and him – that he sees you as a source of protection and security – that the bit of Titania which he possesses would drive him to want to assert his dominance over Neil and ensure that Neil doesn’t supplant him in your ‘affections’, such as they are.”

/ _Truth_./

That… that was messed up, yet Andrew couldn’t say that it didn’t make sense. As for himself, he had ties to both of the young men, even if they weren’t exactly ‘romantically-inclined’. He’d sworn to protect them both, had given them his word which meant a lot to him. Neil _and_ Kevin were connected to him, were bound in their own ways.

“So what do you expect me to do, Puddle girl? Go stand out by the willow tree and yell at Neil that I have no intention of ever sleeping with Kevin?” Andrew scoffed at that and got up to fetch another bottle of whiskey. “Brilliant.”

/… _truth_?/

A certain torc could go fuck itself.

Renee sighed as she cast a pensive glance at the door leading to the hallway as if debating to flee the situation she’d willingly subjected herself to, the meddling fool (that should teach her to never be ‘helpful’ again). “Perhaps… perhaps it might not be a bad thing if Kevin was… _encouraged_ to do something about his pining for a certain Leannan Sidhe?” she suggested. “Though I’ve noticed that he feels a sense of arousal when around Jeremy Knox of the Ocean’s End knowe as well.”

/ _Truth_./

The new bottle of whiskey already halfway to his lips, Andrew paused and gave her a blank look at that statement. “What the hell? Really?” Not that he doubted Kevin’s ‘crushes’, just that Renee knew those facts. “How’d you figure out that last one?”

“It’s easy to tell these things due to elevated pulse rate and blood flow to certain body parts,” she explained with a slight, pleased smile.

/ _Truth_./

Damn naiads, no wonder she’d gotten on him about Neil. “Great, so everything depends on getting Kevin laid. We’re so screwed – not him, _us,_ ” he said before having several gulps of whiskey. It didn’t make things that much better, but at least he didn’t have to face the harsh reality that was his messed-up life completely sober.

/ _Truth_./

Case in point.

“Hmm.” Renee seemed to think about that for a moment. “Maybe we can… no, love potions are _very_ bad, plus they never work as intended,” she said with a deep frown. “This… is going to require some careful thought.”

/ _Truth_./

“It’s going to require a hell of a lot of _magic_ , probably a couple of hope chests at least, not that there seem to be any left, so good luck with that.” Andrew held out the now mostly-empty bottle of whiskey and blinked when Renee snatched it away to finish it off.

/ _Truth_./

“We’ll make this work,” Renee swore once all of the whiskey was gone; it was rare that she drank any alcohol, especially when she could negate the liquor in any of the drinks. “This is too important to let three people who messed up their own lives and then ran out on us to hurt you, too.”

/… _truth_./

Huh, it seemed that the torc didn’t like having its former owner taken to task, too bad. “It’s going to take more than wishful thinking,” Andrew drawled as he lay back on his bed.

“Well, we’ve got plenty of bad attitude thanks to you, that’ll help us go far,” Renee shot back with a sweet tone. Andrew almost set the spirits on her, before he remembered the maenad blood. “Give Neil another day or two, Andrew. I think he’s coming around, he seemed a bit better when I left,” she said in a quieter voice. “He just needs a little time without having so much forced upon him to think things through, and then it’ll be even better between the two of you.”

/ _Truth_./

“And how do you know these things?” he asked as he slipped a knife free, more than willing to ignore the damn torc at the moment.

“Because I gave Allison the space she needed and now we’re slowly working things out.” Renee stood up and smoothed down her clothes as she prepared to leave. “I know you don’t have much faith in these things, but the bond happened between you and Neil for a reason, and I don’t think it’s because you’re both heirs. I believe you’re meant for each other, as ridiculous as it sounds.”

/ _Truth_./

“You’re right, it’s one of the most ridiculous things you’ve ever said, Puddle girl. Best refrain from drinking if it has you spouting stuff like that.” Still, Andrew ran his fingers over the torc and considered the contemplative turn Neil’s emotions had taken in the last hour or so.

Alone once again, he had the couple of spirits out in the knowe check up on things (Neil still beneath his tree, Kevin holed up in the library, Aaron ranting to Nicky in the common room) while he finished the bag of cookies and then had a couple of muffins (not too bad).

He’d just stepped into the shower when there was a spike of upset/anger/guilt over the link with Neil, but try as he might, he couldn’t sense or ‘see’ anything through the spirit he’d stationed by the willow tree; it refused to approach too closely to the shadow walker and all of the shadow wolves. All he knew was that no one had approached Neil’s wards, that Kevin was still in the library so it wasn’t the other part of their little ‘triumvirate’ who’d set him off.

By the time Andrew finished showering and was dry, Neil had calmed down, was filled with a sense of resolve, which made Andrew waver on if he should approach the idiot to see what had bothered him or not. Renee’s advice to give him a little more time made sense, especially if Neil was feeling pressured by the gauntlet and their bond.

Yet Andrew had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

He could always go out there, ask Neil if everything was all right and leave if Neil didn’t want to talk to him – he wouldn’t force the issue, just like he hadn’t the other two times. He tried to make it clear to Neil that he always accepted Neil’s ‘no’ as a valid answer, even if he thought that in this situation, he deserved to be heard. In the end, he respected Neil’s need for space (even if it frustrated the hell out of him).

As soon as he was dressed in jeans, t-shirt and some boots, Andrew was out of his rooms for the first time in over a day. So of course before he managed to get too far, Aaron somehow caught up to him (dammit, had he tripped a ward?).  “Andrew! It’s about fucking time, you asshole!”

“Not now,” he told his brother; Neil’s emotions had taken a pensive, almost guilty turn, for some reason. “Go away.”

“No.” Aaron got in his way with his arms folded across his chest and feet braced on the wooden floor. “I’m tired of you ignoring me whenever you feel like it. We need to talk about Katelyn, about-“

Andrew had a couple of spirits shove his brother aside, not in the mood to talk about the mostly human slut just then. “I said to _go away_.”

“Dammit, Andrew! This-“

He had a spirit muzzle the bastard, too, in no mood to hear Aaron’s complaints just then, and continued down the hallway… only to run into Kevin. “For fuck’s sake, really?” Andrew muttered as he jerked a hand through his hair. “ _How_?” Was there a hex on him or something?

Kevin frowned at that for a moment and then blinked. “Oh, I had the Brownies watch your room,” he explained, and only then did Andrew notice the small figures darting about down the hallways, he’d been so damn focused on getting to Neil. “Now that you’re out, we need to-“

What the hell was it with everyone? “ _We_ don’t need to do anything,” Andrew insisted as he continued on his way, which meant that Kevin flattened against the wall as the spirits shoved him aside. “I didn’t come out to talk to you.”

“But- oh! Neil!” Kevin actually smiled as he fell in step as close to Andrew as he dared. “Great! It’s about time the three of us sat down together and talked.” Then his smile faltered somewhat as he took to twisting the damn ring on his left hand around on his finger. “ _Just_ talk. No, uhm, yelling this time.”

“Which is why you’re going to go back to the library or whatever,” Andrew told him. “There’s so much less yelling and attempts at homicide when you’re not there.”

Kevin glared at him and let go of the ring. “It’s not my fault! I’ve been working on some containment spells and meditations which I think will prevent things on my part, but the two of you getting involved with each other aren’t helping the situation!” He continued on in spite of the cold look Andrew gave him. “Especially when you won’t even court him properly! No wonder he has all this anxiety and thinks I’m going to steal you away or something!”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew was quiet until they got to the end of the hall. “I do hope the next heir for that shitty ring isn’t half as annoying as you. Also, so nice I don’t have to worry about digging a grave for you.”

“What do you- ha, very funny.” Kevin’s glare increased in hostility as he gave Andrew the finger with his left hand. “I’m being perfectly serious here.”

“You’re being a perfect pain in the-“ Actual pain tore through Andrew right then, the sensation of something being ripped out of his chest as an eerie noise filled the knowe.

“Neil,” he gasped as he slumped against the nearest wall. “The idiot just shadow walked somewhere else.” Somewhere far away, for it to hurt like that.

/ _Truth_./

Meanwhile, Kevin looked as if he was about to be sick. “That noise… I think it’s the shadow wolves.”

/ _Truth_./

As terrible as the pain was from the bond being stretched too far, something cold and sharp was shoved into Andrew’s already aching chest when he realized that Neil had gone somewhere without the shadow wolves. Without the mythical, almost indestructible creatures whose sole purpose seemed to be to protect the idiot – the new Unseelie king. “The fuck….” He stumbled away from the wall and toward the door leading out to the gardens.

The knowe seemed to break out into a panic at the heartbreaking howls, and once Andrew was outside he could see that the dark skies were filled with furious pixies, the creatures diving through air which glittered with iridescent dust and the rapid flicker of their multi-colored wings.

Coughing because of the dust even as the spirits whirled around like dervishes to clear away as much of it as they could, Andrew dragged the neck of his t-shirt over the lower half of his face to act as an impromptu mask while he ran toward the willow tree with Kevin right behind him. Even with Neil gone, that seemed to be the source of the awful howling, to be where the damn mutts were congregated so perhaps that would be where he’d get some answers, some _idea_ of what the hell was going on, even as the echo of fresh waves of energy poured into him.

Energy, which meant that Neil was taking lives with his father’s talent. Oh, just _what_ had the idiot done now?

There were shouts behind them, Wymack’s deep voice and Dan’s higher pitched one, but he ignored it as sheer determination and spite (along with his magic) got him to the willow tree at last. Grouped in front of it were several shadow wolves, were Nuit and Ombré, Pilier and Danseur with their heads raised to the stars as they let out another chilling burst of howls.

“Dammit, where is he?” Andrew demanded to know, which made the mutts lower their heads and gaze at him with those liquid black eyes of theirs filled with uncanny intelligence. As Nuit edged forward, Jorea burst out from beneath the willow tree with something clutched in her arms, the rolled up shape almost as big as herself.

“Rude one! Get him back! Get him back, _now_!” she ordered as she flittered around Andrew, panic sharp in her high-pitched voice.

“Where is he?” Andrew repeated as he swatted at the pest. “ _Why did he go off alone_?”

Nuit whined, the sound anxious and low, and shook his head back and forth as if trying to say something while Jorea spun around Andrew’s head. “Ordered us to stay! Said no choice.” She all but threw the item in her arms at Andrew. “Said to stay and give to you.”

/ _Truth_./

Coughing from the blast of dust despite the cloth covering his mouth and nose, Andrew did his best to control his growing temper, the need to destroy something because of the growing agony and panic inside of him and caught the item – a scrap of paper rolled up tight. Once he unraveled it, there was a message written on it, the handwriting shaky as if its writer had been in a hurry or under stress – or both. ‘A debt’s owed, I have no choice. You were amazing.’

/ _Truth_./

Andrew crumpled the paper as those last three words made the pain flare all the stronger inside of him, at the implications behind them. “ _Where the hell did he go_!”

Jorea flapped backwards in the air and shook her head, her silver hair fanning all around her from the jerkiness of her motions. “Buh-baiting’s End,” she admitted at last, which made Kevin, who held the neck of his tunic up to his face, gasp and pale. “He was told to come without the wolves or the tall Fae would die.”

/ _Truth_./

“What, they’re hurting Jean?”

Andrew threw the ball of paper at Kevin while he glared at the pixie. “So he just went? The fucking _idiot_.” Of course he had – rather than risk anyone else, rather than ask for help like someone with common sense, he went right into the Moriyamas’ trap for him, went to face his father by himself. The idiot martyr who probably thought that he was doing all of them a favor by not saying a word. “I’m going to drag him out of there by those ridiculous ears of his and then throttle him myself.”

/… _not-truth_?/

“It’s the fucking truth!” Andrew snarled at the torc while Nuit whined as if confused and Jorea let out a blast of Pixish. “How the hell do I get to Baiting’s End?”

It was around then that the rest of the Foxes showed up, all of them except Renee with bits of cloth or bandanas wrapped around the bottom halves of their faces. “What was that? Baiting’s End? Fuck,” Wymack swore as he stared at the shadow wolves. “Where’s Neil?”

“Paying his father a visit, which means I get to go see the bastard,” Andrew snapped as he sent off a couple of spirits to fetch his staff. “Don’t bitch to me about starting a war, the fucker basically blackmailed Neil into going there alone.”

“Well, technically if you kill everyone who complains, there’s no one to lodge a declaration for war,” Allison said as she nodded once. When Wymack gave her a disapproving look, she waved his silent disregard aside. “What? It’s happened a few times before and I think it can work now since no one gives a shit about Nathan Wesninski. Besides,” she added with a feral gleam in her eyes as she turned back to the main building, “I _owe_ the prick for Seth. Don’t you dare go anywhere until I have my sword, Monster,” she called out to Andrew as she hurried off.

/ _Truth_./

“Hurry the hell up,” he told the Valkyrie while he gave a pointed look to Renee, who sighed as she dusted her hands together.

“I know she’s more than capable at fighting, but I’d feel better if she had someone to watch her back. Give me a minute as well,” she said as she spun around to go fetch her weapons.

“Wait a fucking minute!” Wymack yelled at the two women, who ignored him. “Doesn’t anyone care that you’re going off to start a war? That-“

Andrew got in the man’s face; despite everything, he respected Wymack – the man had kept his word over the decades, had provided a safe home for him, Aaron and Nicky. Wymack may be a fool and have a thing for rescuing people he should ignore, but he truly was an honest and good Fae. “The Moriyamas and Wesninski started this, all I’m doing is ending it,” he told the Daoine Sidhe. “I am going to get Neil back and ensure they’ll never do something like this again.” Nuit stood by his side and the spirits hovered around him, while the pixies seemed to congregate around the willow tree.

/ _Truth_./

Wymack held his gaze despite everything, his muscular arms folded over his broad chest and concern etched on his grizzled face. “You realize that you’ll be breaking one of the most powerful families and taking on a Firstborn to do that, don’t you? And whomever they’ve called to them for support? This isn’t as simple as going to retrieve a borrowed item, Andrew. This is you saying you’re powerful enough to _take_ something from them, from their own knowe – a Firstborn’s knowe - and _proving_ it.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew didn’t blink as he gathered more power from the earth – from the garden made wild due to Neil’s presence, Neil’s magic – as he let his own magic come to the fore until Wymack flinched. “I can prove it, and I will. I won’t let them get away with harming Neil or thinking that they own him. If I have to destroy each and every damn clan and knowe to get him back, _I will_.”

/ ** _Truth_**./

“He won’t do it alone.” Kevin came over to stand beside Andrew. “I’ll help him do it. The Moriyamas aren’t going to hurt people any longer. I’m ending that now.”

Wymack’s dark eyes narrowed at Kevin. “Have you been drinking?”

“No!”

/… _truth_?/

“Wonderful, so everyone’s all on board for the big Fae coup.” Wymack groaned as he rubbed at the back of his head and glanced over at the rest of the Foxes. “What about you morons?”

Dan grinned behind her impromptu mask as she smacked her right fist into her left hand. “We get to fight Moriyama assholes, do you really need to ask?”

“And I always wanted to rescue a cute damsel in distress,” Matt proclaimed with too much enthusiasm. “Neil’s close enough.”

Someone was going to find their rooms booby-trapped with a bunch of hexes once this was all said and done, Andrew thought to himself as he gave Matt a flat look (‘ _truth_ ’).

Meanwhile, Nicky laughed at the stupid joke and nodded. “Neil’s part of the family, of course I’m in.” Oh, look, another person about to deal with a bunch of hexes.

/ _Truth_./

That only left Aaron, who chewed on a hangnail while he gave Andrew look. “Oh fine, I’ll help rescue Andrew’s _boyfriend_ , too.”

“You can stay here, I’m fine with it,” Andrew told him, meaning every word – especially since he could feel Neil’s growing pain, fear and anger and knew the situation would be as dangerous as Wymack had warned.

“No, let’s go rescue the _boyfriend_ ,” Aaron stressed while Nicky grew nervous beside him.

“You’re making it so I won’t care if you get hit with elf-shot or worse while at Baiting’s End,” Andrew warned, which earned a whisper of ‘ _not-truth’_.

Aaron merely smiled in return as he nudged Nicky in the side. “Come on, let’s go prepare for ‘Operation Save Andrew’s _Boyfriend_ ’.” As if saying it three times was part of a spell or gave him power over Andrew – or, more likely, would help with the whole Katelyn thing, knowing Aaron.

“Uhm, I don’t want to stand near you during the fighting,” Nicky told him in an anxious voice. “I mean, just in case… you know.”

Aaron’s reply was lost as they went past the holly bushes, along with Dan and Matt going off to get ready, too. Wymack stayed for some annoying reason.

“Look, take a few minutes to prepare, okay? I’m going to send a message to James since I think this is what he’s been waiting for, so that’s one knowe at your side.” He rubbed at his masked jaw as he looked Andrew and Kevin up and down. “Though you still have to figure out how you’re going to get into Baiting’s End.”

Andrew looked over at Kevin, who shook his head. “I can’t teleport past its wards, and Dan can’t use the trees to get in, either. Neil’s the one with the ability to go wherever he wants.”

/ _Truth_./

Neil… and his pets. Andrew regarded Nuit until the mutt looked up at him. “Can you help us?” By way of response, Nuit gave him a wide, sharp-tooth smile and bowed his head before disappearing into the shadows. “All right, I think we’re covered in that regard.” He glanced over his shoulder to the spot of silver perched on a swaying branch of the willow tree. “Oi! Jorea! Come here.”

There was the buzz of tiny wings much like a horde of hummingbirds or a huge hive of agitated bees as the pixies reacted to Andrew’s casual ordering of their queen (or whatever Jorea was to them), but the bossy pest darted over to him. “What, Rude One?” she snapped.

“Can you find Stuart Hatford? I’m thinking he’ll want to join in on the fun, too.” As much as the man aggravated the hell out of Andrew, he seemed genuinely concerned about Neil and while Stuart wasn’t a Firstborn, he was pretty close to one. Plus, he had one hell of a reason to hate Nathan Wesninski.

Jorea’s expression lost some of its sharp edge as she considered the question. “Scáth Sidhe, yes. I bring here?”

“Tell him that Nathan Wesninski has his nephew and we’re going to get Neil back, and if he wants to keep his promise that he better come along.”

Jorea grinned at that, a baring of teeth almost as sharp as Nuit’s. “I will do that.” A flurry of long silver hair and silver wings as she spun around in the air, then she shot away as if a comet through the sky; Andrew didn’t know if the pixies had some ability to breach wards, too, but she didn’t seem concerned about getting into Stuart’s knowe at all.

Wymack grunted in approval as he motioned toward the main building. “All right then, we’ve got a means to get into Baiting End’s and allies on their way, now to raid the damn armory for everything of use.”

They barely got two steps toward the building, Andrew gritting his teeth together against the pain the entire time (on one hand, it felt as if the idiot was still in one piece, but on the other, he was willing to bet they were using light against him), when there was a loud cry from just beyond the wards ringing the knowe itself.

Worried about a trap, Andrew sent a spirit to investigate while several pixies flew off as well, but something made Kevin run. Cursing out the fool, Andrew went running (stumbling), too, with a pissed-off Wymack ranting about empty-headed maggots right behind him, and almost tripped when a spirit relayed the image of a bleeding and bruised Jean Moreau huddled on the other side of the wards.

Oh yes, Andrew was so going to throttle Neil once he got his idiot back.

/… _truth_?/

Hell yes.

*******

Even braced as he was for the pain of leaving Andrew behind, it still took Neil’s breath away when he slipped through the shadows into Baiting’s End; he put the memory (nightmares) of his father’s knowe to good use and entered a little used corridor so he could hopefully approach his father and what probably would be the Moriyamas unnoticed, knives in hand and the gauntlet spreading across his upper body.

He snuck along one of the wide hallways of the large castle-like building which comprised the main building of the knowe, its walls made out of a dark grey granite-like stone and illuminated by spheres of burning white at regular intervals, aided by his shadow walking ability and the gauntlet negating what he guessed to be an innumerable amount of wards and hexes. Still, there came a point where he ran into a couple of guards dressed in dark brown and gold, two men whom he slipped up to and dispatched with barely any hesitation and the flare of his magic.

Two less guards were two less threats at his back.

He managed to repeat that two more times, one of the guards dressed in black and red, before he heard voices coming from the main hall ahead. Filled with magic from the lives he’d ended, which at least dulled the pain of being away from Andrew a little (but did nothing to lessen the intense anger, betrayal and hurt he felt over their link), he did his best to recall the exact layout of the spacious room where he’d dreaded joining his parents for formal meals, of sitting at his mother’s side while his father had entertained guests or punished servants. Once certain that he knew where to go, Neil slipped into the shadows-

-only to step out of them into blinding light, into intense agony as that brightness tore into him, as there was the all-too familiar burn of iron across his left cheek as well as someone lunged at him. The gauntlet was coldness growing over his skin even more to protect him, to hide him from the light, while Neil lounged about blindly to strike at the bastard trying to harm him with iron. He heard a familiar hissing laugh as his hair was grabbed, a wrenching pain in his head, but it even as the knife was smacked from his left hand, he swung his right arm back and felt the spikes of his enchanted ‘armor’ pierce the flesh of his attacker.

That was all he needed for his magic – his father’s magic – to work, and Romero Malcolm’s grip loosened as the man fell dead to the floor. Left blind by the punishing light, Neil stumbled to his knees as well, desperate for shadows, for some way to retreat, especially when he heard a loud metal clanking all around him and felt the familiar drain of iron.

“ _Romero_! You bastard, I’ll-“

“Leave him be,” he heard his father yell at Lola Malcolm as more metal was dropped all around Neil, the sound of that deep voice putting him even more into a panic; he put out a tentative, trembling hand and despite the gauntlet, snatched it back at the feel of so much iron around him. “Stay away from him, I’ll gut the first person who gets halfway close enough to cast a shadow on him!”

No, no, no, no – trapped by light and iron and his father was there – Neil huddled in on himself and tugged on his hair as he spat out curses and hexes, desperate to do _something_ , for some way to escape. He could-

The sound of someone crying out in pain jerked him from his thoughts as he thought he recognized that voice. “Oi, Junior! Get rid of the gauntlet or Moreau here is going to lose even more skin. Be a shame that you came here for nothing, right?”

Neil tugged on his hair again as he shook his head. “I… I can’t.” He tried to will the gauntlet to behave for once, to retreat a little, but he was hurting and afraid and blind, could feel blood sliding down the left side of his face beneath the silver, and as always the damn thing had a mind of its own. “It doesn’t listen to me.” He flinched when Jean cried out again and turned a little more toward the awful sound.

“You really going to let me kill this boy just like I killed your mother?” As always, his father sounded so cruel and mocking.

“Dammit, stop it!” Neil managed to raise up to his knees and glared at where he hoped his father was, to hold out his right hand. “It does what it wants!”

“We never could get him to release the gauntlet,” Tetsuji said in a thoughtful voice, confirming Neil’s suspicions that the Moriyamas were there, as well. “Despite considerable threats.”

“Huh. Maybe we need the right incentive,” Nathan argued while Jean whimpered in pain. “We just need to make this drag out long enough.”

“ _No, please_ ,” Jean begged in French, and something twisted inside of Neil, a mix of anger and hatred and outrage. Why could he never stop his father? He refused to fail again, dammit.

“ _Jean Moreau, go. **Now**_ ,” he ordered, unwilling to let Jean be hurt any longer, to be hurt because of him or be harmed by his father and the Moriyamas anymore. He’d come here because of Jean, because of the debt owed to the Leannan Sidhe, and even if it cost Neil his freedom in the end, he would see it wiped clean. “ ** _Go_**.”

“Shut up,” Riko barked at him, but even as the bastard spoke, there was a hint of Neil’s magic right before people cried out in surprise and then pain and disgust, before even Nathan hollered in anger and then there was another flare of magic, that time a mix of Kevin’s and Jean’s, that scent of rosemary and lily.

“Iron take you, didn’t you search him first? Why did he have those spells on him?” Nathan demanded to know, his voice that deadly combination of anger and frustration, and the stench of his magic heavy in the air.

“We… he’s never done anything like that before, sir! He-“ Whoever the unlucky Fae was, he barely cried out before Nathan’s magic stripped away his life, while Neil once more huddled in the center of the iron ring trapping him as effectively as the bright light and leeching away his own magic.

“You _always_ check them, you fucking fools!” Nathan snarled while someone else cried out in pain.

“Does that mean me, too?” Neil mumbled, his right cheek pressed against his right arm as he closed his useless eyes; everything _hurt_ as the light continued to pour over him, as the iron sapped away his strength, as he continued to remain away from Andrew. Dammit, of course he couldn’t have managed to sneak in and grab Jean, it never was that easy, not with his father. It was always pain and suffering and Neil being beaten down one way or another.

There was a mocking chuckle from the bastard at that remark. “Go ahead and make that silver shit behave and I’ll check you myself, Junior. We’ll see what happens when two Folús Sidhe touch each other, yes?”

“Maybe we’ll drain each other,” Neil said with all the venom he could summon at the moment. “It would be worth it to rid the worlds of _you_.”

“You have the bitch’s tongue and my temper, Nathaniel,” his father taunted him. “It’s almost a shame to break you, but you always should have known your place.”

“I will never swear to the Moriyamas,” Neil promised. “Not so you can get out of a punishment you deserve.”

“You will, because it’s what you were born for, you mouthy little bastard,” Nathan snarled at him.

“This is taking too long, can’t you do something to break him now?” That was Riko, ever the whiny prick. Neil sneered at him, as much as he was able to at the moment.

“No, not while the gauntlet is active,” Nathan gritted out as if he’d had it with Riko, too. “But dear little Nathaniel can only hold out so long with the light and iron with no food or water,” he added with a much more certain tone. “I guarantee you that those spells can last longer than _he_ can, and then that thing will have to obey or else it’ll need a new heir.”

Neil fought not to shiver at that thought, at the possibility of the gauntlet going dormant again rather than risk him dying from starvation and thirst. Of him breaking from those things… or from his father finding another weak point to use against him during that time.

He would have rather died back in the Evermore cell… but now he thought about not seeing Andrew again, of losing… for some reason, he didn’t want to die anymore. Not when he could feel Andrew, so angry and vibrant and determined on the other side of their bond.

“Until then, we can certainly make things as unpleasant as possible for him. Lola – keep far enough away from him, but he’s yours for now.”

“Yes, Lord Nathan.” The amount of pleased malice in her voice snapped Neil back to attention, and the faint slithering sound followed by a loud crack made him brace himself right before something slammed into his left shoulder with enough force to knock him onto his side while a fire started burning in the spot where it had hit.

It moved too fast for him to grab onto or to leave any shadow, and the pain from its impact meant one thing – iron. An iron-tipped whip, judging from the rustling and the crack, and just as he figured that out, Lola laughed as she snapped it again.

And again.

And again.

And _again_.

The gauntlet protected Neil from magic, from spells and curses, and the spikes helped to protect him in fights as well. But it was spread all over him right then, struggled to completely cover his flesh and shield him from the light as well as other magic, and it could only do so much against all the iron as well. He suspected that it helped to keep the whip from shattering bones and ripping apart skin, but he still felt the impact, still felt the pain, and soon was hunched over with his arms protecting his head as Lola continued to avenge her brother, as Riko cheered her on and demanded to be given the whip next.

 Neil shuddered as he swore that no matter what, death _would_ be better than giving in to his father.

*******

The gnawing pain inside of Andrew's chest, in his head and eyes continued to grow with each breath, each heartbeat, yet for some reason he stood in Abby's workroom while the healer tended to Moreau. "What's going on in Baiting's End," he repeated for the fourth time. "What are they-"

"Another minute, dammit," Abby snapped with a rare bit of heat. "I'm almost done here."

/ _Truth_./

"Neil went to his father, _the_ _Butcher_ , for this asshole, I want _answers_ ," Andrew shot back as the spirits tore up some herb plants, and nearly smacked Bee when she came over to offer him a mug. " _What_?"

"Drink this, it should help." When he glared at the Leannan Sidhe, she gave him an even look back. "With the bond and everything, there's nothing that'll harm you in it, I swear on the stars above and roots below."

/ _Truth_./

He considered that for a moment, the gnawing ache in his chest, before he accepted it.

Meanwhile, Moreau let out a muffled moan while Abby tended to a cut along his left ribs, his bare upper body almost as scarred as Neil's. "No, it's all right," he said in a weary voice. "I'm better now." He’d been almost passed out when Andrew, Kevin and Wymack had reached him and brought him into the knowe, his magic mostly spent on the teleportation spell which had allowed him to escape from Baiting's End. Abby had managed to get some potions down his throat with Renee's help, which had revived him somewhat, but he hadn’t said much. "The Master... he and Riko didn't take the news of Kevin inheriting the ring well." He gave a quick glance to Kevin, who hovered on the other side of the bed before looking away, his thick black bangs falling onto his bruised face. "Nor word of more knowes breaking from the High Council. A couple of days ago we went to the Folús Sidhe's knowe and... well." He made an abrupt gesture to his battered body. "Somehow, they found out about a pixie which Neil had ordered to watch over me, and once Wesninski's people caught it, they... ah, they set it free eventually with instructions that he was to come without protection or else my life was forfeit."

/ _Truth_./

And of course Neil had gone, after two Fae who were under his domain had been hurt, Andrew thought as he forced down the potion which Bee had made for him, something strongly flavored with honey, which helped to soothe the ache in his chest a little. Not much, but a little. "Which he did." The damn idiot.

"Yes, he did." Moreau sounded incredulous about that, as if he wasn’t used to people stepping in to help him. "They had light spells waiting for him, light spells and iron, but the gauntlet was protecting him the last I saw." He shook his head, which made Abby chide him since she was finishing with some stitches. "Mostly protecting him. He's trapped and I believe his father and the Master are waiting for him to grow weak before they can... well, the gauntlet can only hold out so long," Moreau said, his expression bleak.

/ _Truth_./

Fury raged inside of Andrew at that, at the thought of Riko and Tetsuji and Nathan hurting Neil any more than they already had, on them trying to break the idiot to their will. Bee made a soothing sound to remind him about the spirits, which he struggled to control while… well, he forced them to calm down, while Kevin went to touch Moreau before jerking his hand back.

"Uhm, how did you get away?"

Moreau glanced at Kevin once more before ducking his head. "Neil. He... I think he ordered me." The Leannan Sidhe rubbed at the back of his neck despite Abby's complaints for a moment. "He looked at me and told me to go, and I felt an odd compulsion, felt free of that awful oath to the Moriyamas for once. I used the stones he gave me to break away and old teleportation spell of Kevin's to get here."

/ _Truth_./

That last part made Kevin smile like a fool.

"I, uhm, I'm glad you could use it. I..."

Andrew thought he was going to be sick or kill someone, maybe both. "Whatever. Neil signed up for torture for your lame ass and now you're here, the gauntlet's doing some good for once, now tell the others how many people we have to kill to get him free. I need some air before do I something that's going to have Neil try to hex me for the next few centuries." Andrew gave Moreau and Kevin the finger before he turned around to leave the workroom, disgusted with the stupidity that it contained.

/ _Truth_./

Of course Bee and Renee followed him, which didn't help his mood any, so he gave them a blank look for their presence.

"I'm going to finish gathering a few helpful items you might need," Bee told him with a smile.

"It better be shit to give them eternal waking nightmares and fry their nervous systems," he told her with a narrow look.

Bee clicked her tongue a couple of times. "You should know me better than that, I'm not an amateur." Something dark flashed behind her spelled glasses. "This is war, Andrew, and they have one of our own. Needless to say, use what I give you wisely."

/ _Truth_./

All right, he was the slightest bit impressed just then. That left Renee, who also allowed some of that wonderful darkness to come to the fore. "Abby doesn't need me now, so I'll finish getting ready." She had already exchanged her usual flowing clothes for clinging leathers which bore the scent of her magic, which meant that they were charmed with protection as well as ease of fighting. They covered her from neck to wrists, high boots and pants and tailored shirt with lacings to allow for full movement - and several sheathes for weapons. "Now I'm off to the armory."

“Far be it for me to join the party in anything but my prettiest dress,” Andrew drawled, which drew a laugh from Bee and a smile from Renee as he gave them a two-fingered salute and went to his rooms so he could pull on something a little better than jeans and a t-shirt since everyone else was dressing up. After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled on leather pants and a pair of thick-soled boots, and an older leather jerkin he didn’t care about getting ruined with blood or slashes but which would offer a little protection. His usual armbands were exchanged for a heavier pair which completely covered his forearms, and he made sure to grab as many knives as he could, including the enchanted pair. Between those, his staff and his magic, he was good to go.

Judging from what the spirits were telling him, it seemed that he wasn’t alone. About fucking time, especially since his entire body now throbbed in an echo of phantom pain, and a worrying sense of despair/determination was creeping over the bond from Neil.

Andrew went out into the gardens to see that Rheman had arrived, and not only was a grinning Knox at his side, but the rest of the Ocean’s End knowe – he knew Alvarez and Dermott, a Gans changeling and a Yakshas respectively, but only because of working with them a couple of times. The rest of the knowe he hadn’t bothered with, and didn’t see that changing any time soon.

“You’ve alerted the other knowes?” Rheman asked Wymack while Knox waved at Andrew, who ignored the Tuatha de Danann with ease.

“Yeah, they’re aware that shit is about to happen, but I figured it’s best to not have too many show up and us all trip over each other.”

Rheman nodded as if he understood that logic, when Andrew wanted to make sure that Nathan and the Moriyamas were _broken_. “Is anyone else joining us?”

Wymack looked over to the distance, and as if in answer, the trees began rustling their leaves right before Dan led another familiar face through one of the paths – Stuart Hatford and about two dozen other Fae, all of them dressed in dark grey and blue and heavily armed. “I think you know the Shadow’s Edge knowe.”

“Yes, you could say that,” Rheman remarked in a rather dry tone. He went to bow slightly to Stuart, but the bastard stomped right up to Andrew.

“I thought you were looking after Nathaniel, you damn uppity little shit!”

Andrew had a spirit shove the bastard back while he glared. “ _I was_ – this is all on Neil. He disappeared on me because his prick of a father used extortion on him. Now I’m going to get him back and kill some Moriyamas for daring to try something like this, so if you want to keep your promise, _shut the fuck up_ and come along.”

/ _Truth_./

It was quiet in the garden just then save for the faint rustling of various leaves, until there was the furious flap of wings as the pixies finally arrived. “ ** _We_** _go get our king back_ ,” Jorea declared as she hovered for a moment near Andrew before settling on his left shoulder with a disgruntled ‘hmph’. “Come if you must, but stay out of our way.”

/… _truth?_ /

Andrew… thought the damn pest might be growing on him, which meant that he so was going to smack Neil when he got his idiot back.

/… _truth?_ /

Oh hell yes.

It looked as if Renee was barely holding back a smile while Stuart had eaten something sour, judging from the way his lips were pressed together right then, before he sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “You- I- all right, moving on. _We’re_ getting Nathaniel. Agreed.” He glared at first Jorea then Andrew for a couple of seconds. “ _How_ the _fuck_ are we getting Nathaniel? The damn pixie didn’t say anything about that. I can’t shadow walk into Baiting’s End, trust me, I’ve tried.” He once again appeared rather bitter.

/ _Truth_./

Andrew glanced around the garden before he sighed. “Any moment now.” Damn mutts.

As if they’d been waiting for a special invitation, the shadow wolves stepped out from the darkness, more than Andrew had ever seen before, even on the Dark Road; Neil had told him that he’d heard other packs while on the Dark Road, had seen glimpses of them, but he’d only interacted with _his_ pack. Andrew didn’t know if it was because that pack had ‘claimed’ Neil or what, if perhaps it was one pack per heir, but there definitely was more than the usual mutts in the garden at the moment.

There were general comments along the lines of ‘what the hell!’ if not outright screams of terror and some waving of sharp weapons, which the shadow wolves on the whole ignored. _Of course_ Renee was smiling and handing out biscuits while crooning ‘good, pretty puppy’ at the creatures, which earned her much tail-wagging (and looks of horror), while Allison seemed to be eyeing them up before going over to one of the biggest creatures (also earning her looks of horror).

“ _You_ ,” she told it while it eyed her up in return and showed a hint of sharp white teeth. “I think I know how this works, so you and me. Let’s kill some bastards, all right?” The wolf continued to stare at her for a couple of seconds before it let out a low, deep huff.

“You Foxes are cah-razieee,” Alvarez said in a singsong manner as she nervously approached a shadow wolf with Dermott at her side.

/ _Truth_./

“I know, isn’t it wonderful?” Dermott stated. “Been ages since we had any real fun.” They shared a smile together before Dermott looked over at Andrew, her long braid sliding over her left shoulder. “How _does_ this work?”

Andrew glanced down at Nuit, who was leaning against him and giving him a smile. “I need to be in contact with Neil for him to pull me along when he shadow walks,” Stuart was nodding in agreement, “so I’m going to guess that we need to touch the wolves when they do it, too.” Nuit barked and wagged his tail at that while the torc murmured ‘ _truth_ ’, so Andrew assumed that he’d guessed right. “Everyone pair up with a wolf – if they were going to kill you, they’d have done it already,” he told the Fae who were hesitating.

/Truth./

“Not helping,” a Merrow from Ocean’s End muttered, but he went along with a Selkie to stand with a smaller wolf from the strange pack, so Andrew didn’t strangle him then and there. First priority was rescuing Neil, _then_ he could deal with these annoying bastards – if they were still alive.

Someone was enjoying beating the shit out of Neil a little too much and was at the top of Andrew’s ‘must be killed list’ at the moment.

He looked around to see that Kevin was standing with Wymack and Knox, wearing his sword and a few knives, his pouch of spelled stones and what looked to be a charmed vest of sorts. Despite the fact that he was going off to fight Riko and Tetsuji, Kevin’s expression was determined, his left hand steady on his sword belt and right on Pilier’s nape. He met Andrew’s gaze and gave a slight nod in return. “The sooner we do this, the better chance of surprise we have,” he said.

“Get ready,” Andrew called out to everyone; Renee came over to his side, her left hand resting on Ombré’s back and one of her kama in her right.

“The Butcher is _mine_ ,” Stuart called out, and Andrew nodded in agreement right before he motioned with his staff for the wolves to go. There was a quick bark from Nuit before the mutts moved a step forward into darkness… and then Andrew stumbled into a foreign knowe, into a large room with a dark grey marble floor veined with green and gold, with animal skins scattered about and hanging on walls (and… and maybe not _just_ animal skins), with people dressed in brown and gold and black and red standing about while cheering something on as the pain continued to bloom all over Andrew’s back and arms even as that awful ache in his chest finally eased.

Well, they _had_ been cheering, until they realized that they were no longer alone. “Neil, take me to Neil,” Andrew told Nuit, and there was another step into the shadows as yelling broke out. When they reappeared in Baiting’s End, the group of people was broken up and the yells were now screams.

There was a shallow wall of what looked to be iron in the center of the hall, along with a ball of light so brilliant that Andrew could just barely make out the huddled form inside of it. Nearby were a couple of people – were Riko and the woman, Lola, who gaped at him and Nuit as if disbelieving their eyes. “Riko’s mine,” Andrew said, especially since he caught sight of the long piece of reinforced leather hanging from Riko’s right hand.

Hmm, that wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with all the pain Neil had been in recently, would it?

/ _Truth_./

Lola tried to cast a curse at them, but Nuit took the brunt of it, the ‘smile’ back as he bounded forward in a black blur. She then attempted to run, but it was too late to escape the fleet shadow wolf. Riko, bastard that he was, stood his ground as his Tengu nature rushed to the fore, feathers spreading across his face and wings bursting free, but Andrew merely grinned as he drew energy from the ground (oh, there was a lot of it in Baiting’s End, and **so many** spirits eager to obey) and held up his staff so the iron ends deflected another curse and the whip (ah, iron, that explained things). He used the energy to yank Riko forward despite the bastard flapping his wings, and flipped his staff enough to drive it into Riko’s gut to knock the wind out of him.

“You filthy cha-“ Riko let out a wheezing gasp as he crumpled to the floor, and Andrew wasted no time in bringing the staff down on his wings, in crippling him. He smiled a little at the screams, and next brought it down on the bastard’s spine.

Sensing an approaching death, he used the staff so he could lean down a little. “Yes, a filthy changeling,” he said, guessing what Riko had been trying to say just then. “A filthy changeling got the better of you. And I’ll shred your spirit when this all over, too.” All because the bastard had to do his best to destroy everything he touched, had dared to hurt Neil.

When Riko stared up at him with hatred and disbelief, Andrew brought the staff down on his skull with all the strength he possessed, a sense of satisfaction in him when he felt it break beneath his weapon, when he felt Riko’s death, and used his magic to do what he’d promised. That dealt with for the moment, he summoned all those spirits as a buffer between the fight raging on in the room and the iron circle so he could rescue Neil without anyone fucking things up.

Nuit and Ombré were hovering around the iron ring, as close as they could manage with it and the intense light, while Jorea and several pixies were darting inside of the thing. “Well?” Had they figured out the spell for the lights? Neil felt barely conscious and hadn’t reacted to their presence, which wasn’t a good sign.

Jorea let out a string of Pixish for several seconds before she flew at Andrew. “Give weapon?” She glared at him until he sighed and handed over the smallest knife he had on him, which she could barely manage to carry, her wings flapping so fast that they were even more of a silver blur. Another pixie came over to help her with the thing.

While they dealt with the light spell, he took to breaking down the iron ‘wall’, which were solid pieces of panels held together with chains; he could knock them apart with his staff. He’d gotten a couple down when Jorea let out a loud, victorious cry right before there was what sounded to be glass shattering and the brilliant light blinked out.

The mutts let out anxious yips and dashed forward, almost knocking Andrew over in their haste, which made him glare at them even as he dropped his staff and hurried into the broken circle to check on his idiot. Neil was curled into a tight ball and completely encased in silver, save for strands of his auburn curls poking through what looked to be a slotted helm of sorts on his head. The spikes were so small on the armor, probably because Andrew had never seen the gauntlet extend itself so much, more like thin, tiny sharp thorns all over Neil’s body.

The idiot still wasn’t moving, was little more than a painful throb in Andrew’s mind, so Andrew approached him with caution while Jorea hovered nearby. He only hesitated a moment to place his hand on Neil’s left shoulder and waited for those thorns to sink into his skin… but after a second the silver slowly retreated beneath his touch, began to leave Neil exposed.

Just as carefully pulling Neil toward him, Andrew noticed all the bruises, the bleeding cut on Neil’s left cheek from jaw to just below his eye (it was red and angry, meaning it had been done by iron), the dark shadows beneath his eyes. He’d just gotten Neil settled in his lap when the idiot tensed up, which caused a flash of pain in them both. “No!”

“It’s okay,” Andrew told him when Neil pushed at his chest. “I’m pretty sure it’s okay.” There was a lot less screaming going on now, at least, and the mutts were calm. “Lot of people dying, at least, but pretty sure they’re not ours.” He could sense the deaths and the spirits would let him know if Aaron, Nicky, Kevin or Renee were in trouble.

/ _Truth./_

“’Drew?” Neil relaxed and relief/trust/exhaustion flowed across the bond. “You came? How?”

“Of course I came. How else am I going to smack you for being an idiot?” Andrew asked as he settled a little better on the hard floor with Neil sitting slumped against him; it looked as if the lights had blinded the shadow walker, hopefully only temporarily, just like back on the Dark Road. “And I am. Going to smack you.”

/… _not-truth_?/

The torc could fuck off just then, especially since there was the tiniest of smiles on Neil’s bruised and bleeding face, a bit lopsided because of the cut, while guilt joined in the emotional mix. “I… no choice.” Then he stirred a little. “My father?” That came along with the usual fear and hatred.

“Stuart was off hunting him down, last I checked. Let’s go see.” Andrew had one of the spirits take his staff while he hauled Neil more or less onto his feet while Jorea hissed at him and the mutts rushed over to lean against them. Neil’s smile strengthened the slightest bit as his fingers twisted in Ombré’s nape and Jorea landed on his right shoulder to scold him in Pixish, his left arm slung over Andrew’s shoulders to help keep him on his feet.

“Oh, I could use a week or two in Renee’s pool,” he moaned as he slumped against Andrew.

/ _Truth_./

“Doable, I think.” If they weren’t fighting the rest of the Fae, then. Andrew had the spirits shove a charging Moriyama knight aside, only for Nuit to appear behind the Daoine Sidhe to rip out her throat, and the pixies attacked a Trow en masse a moment later. Allison was halfway across the hall hacking in pieces some huge Wesninski knight who had to be half troll, her sword flashing through air like silver lightning, while Aaron and Nicky fought back to back with earth and water magic as Martinet watched over them.

Kevin was engaged in a magic duel with Tetsuji, but judging from the way that the Tengu’s shoulders were drooping and sweat was running down his face, Kevin was moments away from winning. Wymack and Knox were on hand to ensure that no one interfered, fighting off any Moriyama knights who tried to break Kevin’s concentration. That left one other person of interest, so Andrew glanced around to see Nathan Wesninski taking out a couple of knights loyal to Hatford and Rheman with a wide grin on his face and small, bloody hatchets in his hands.

As he raised his right hand to bring it down on a stocky Urisk Sidhe in grey and blue, there was shimmer in the shadows behind him as Stuart appeared, a short sword held in his right hand and an iron dagger in his left. He shoved the sword into Nathan’s back and jerked it across, most likely to sever the prick’s spine, as he brought the iron dagger to his former brother-in-law’s throat. His lips moved but he was too far away for Andrew to hear what was being said, but Andrew imagined that he could guess – something about promises being kept and Mary, possibly Neil as well.

/ _Truth_./

Nathan’s expression was one of utter disbelief, rage and betrayal as the iron dagger was plunged into his throat. Andrew delighted in the fact that he would remember it for a very _, very_ long time.

“Well, it looks like your uncle keeps his word, how nice.”

“Huh?” The exhaustion and pain was overtaking things with Neil and he was having trouble remaining on his feet, let alone conscious. Luckily, there weren’t too many enemy knights left alive at that point, especially with all the shadow wolves around, and Kevin had just finished off Tetsuji so all the major players were gone.

“Your father’s dead,” Andrew explained, and had to keep Neil from falling as the idiot’s knees gave out upon hearing the news, there was such a strong pulse of disbelief/relief/happiness.

“He… I can’t… _finally_.” Neil closed his useless eyes and shook his head. “ _Finally_.”

Done bleeding out a Gwyllion, Renee seemed to notice them and came running over. “Neil! What’s wrong?” She frowned when he flinched at her approach and slowed down. “May I?” she asked, and stepped closer once he nodded.

“He was blinded by a light spell,” Andrew explained since while Renee wasn’t exactly a healer, she could do a few things with her magic water ability.

“Ah, yes, that explains his eyes.” She lightly touched a hand to Neil’s left cheek and at least made the bleeding stop and quickly examined his almost entirely blue eyes. “I think Abby can help speed up their healing, I’m not sensing any extensive damage, I think they’re just… hmm, consider them over-taxed.”

/ _Truth_./

“Thank the shadows,” Neil breathed out while Ombré whined and nudged his hip.

“Remember that feeling of panic the next time you run off without me,” Andrew told him, and even Jorea nodded.

Renee smiled a little as she held her hand out near Neil’s chest. “The rest is largely bruising, nothing too extreme but he needs to rest and take it easy for a while.”

/ _Truth_./

“If we’re done here.” Andrew was a little disappointed that he hadn’t gotten to see Bee’s spells in action, but supposed there was always the future, especially if other knowes or clans decided to take offense at them wiping out the Moriyamas or killing a Firstborn.  There was still Ichirou Moriyama, after all.

Neil shuddered, his emotions surprised and somewhat unhappy, which made Andrew shove his staff at a stunned Renee before he wrapped both arms around his lover’s waist. “What?” When Neil didn’t answer and the scent of his magic filled the air, Andrew gave him a rough shake, which made Jorea launch herself into the air and hiss at him. “ _What_ , dammit?”

“Ahhh.” Neil shivered as he pressed his hands against Andrew’s chest and shook his head. “The knowe… it just passed to me. Was weird.”

That didn’t make any sense at first, until Andrew remembered about Nathan dying. “So what, Baiting End’s is yours now?”

“Yeah.” Neil sounded about two minutes away from passing out and wasn’t very happy at the moment, not that Andrew could blame him, considering the little Neil had said about his childhood in the place.

“Didn’t that happen when your mom died? With her knowe?”

“Wasn’t… in the knowe or Fae at the time,” Neil reminded him as he shuffled closer. “Don’ want it. This one.”

“Yeah, well-“ Andrew gave a blank look at Wymack, Kevin and Stuart, who were approaching from two different directions. “What?”

“So he’s okay?” Wymack asked, only to wince a moment later. “He’s mostly all right? Because we need to get out of here, those pets of his aren’t eating everyone.”

/ _Truth_./

“Nathaniel, are you all right?” Stuart asked as he stepped closer to Neil and would have touched him, except he seemed to remember in time that his hands were covered in blood. “I took care of him for you. That bastard will never hurt you again.”

/ _Truth_./

Well, not entirely, since Stuart had his own agenda for killing Nathan, but yes, Nathan Wesninski would never harm Neil again now that he was dead. “Let’s go,” Andrew agreed as he gave Neil's waist a squeeze. "Unless you want to stay here?" That was directed at a certain idiot who seemed to have zoned out again.

"Uhm... no." Neil blinked a couple of times, his eyes still unseeing. "I was just changing the wards and telling the knowe not to let anyone in who was sworn to my father," he explained. "That should lock it up for now." He shuddered again, probably at the thought of being his father's heir, at being the only Folús Sidhe. It made him even more important, even more valuable... but one thing at a time.

The shadow wolves had gathered around Neil, their heads turned in his direction and ears pricked forward. He seemed to sense their attention because he smiled a little and lifted his head as if to look at them while he rubbed at Ombré’s ears, which pulled a pleased whine from her and provoked much tail-wagging from the rest of the mutts. "I'm ready now."

/ _Truth_./

The remaining Fae shuffled over to the wolves, some of them bleeding and bruised, some of them needing a helping hand (Abby and Aaron would be busy for a while), and as soon as everyone was touching a shadow wolf, the creatures pulled them through the shadows and back to the Foxhole Court, where Abby and Bee were waiting for them in the main garden along with a good bit of the Brownies. Abby spared a moment to give Wymack a quick hug while Bee came over to check on Andrew and Neil.

"So you made it through alive? What a surprise," she told Andrew with a knowing grin.

"And I managed to pick up an idiot along the way." He gave Neil's left hip a slight smack for the whine that comment produced. "Oh, just wait until you're feeling better, you are not getting off easy for this bit of stupidity."

Neil stared off at nothing in particular as his fingers buried deep in Ombré’s nape. "Maybe living at Baiting's End wouldn't be too bad after all... ow!" He tried to scowl at Andrew, but was off by a couple of inches.

"Just shut up for a while," Andrew advised.

"Neil? Oh stars, what happened to you? Andrew, bring him to my lab," Abby chided as she came over and immediately began fussing over Neil, despite the mutts and Jorea refusing to be parted from their precious 'king'.

"One minute," Neil pleaded as he attempted to step away, which was almost amusing because he couldn't see where he was going and was too weak from the exposure to iron and the light and oh, yeah, being beat to shit to stand on his own because he was a stupid martyr idiot. Which meant that Andrew had to keep him on his feet a little longer as the shadow wolves trotted over to be petted and basically be told 'good whatever' in old Fae before they slipped back to the Dark Road, much to the relief of everyone else.

"Come on," Andrew said as he dragged Neil along, well aware of how exhausted and aching Neil felt just then. "Time to drink a few potions, and not _one_ complaint."

"Okay." Neil closed his eyes and allowed Andrew to half-carry him, which would be suspicious as shit if he couldn't barely walk just then.

It looked as if a few people wanted to follow - Stuart, Matt and Nicky especially - but Andrew had his familiar spirits block them as they made their way to Abby's workroom, where the beds were already being filled up. Moreau rose to his feet in an uncoordinated rush when he saw Neil, but Andrew had a helpful spirit shove the Leannan Sidhe back down, even if it made Neil frown and caused a pulse of displeasure over their link.

"Andrew?" Of course he’d pick up on that somehow.

"He needs his rest, and so do you," Andrew argued as he set Neil down on the bed in the corner furthest from the door. "What did I say about shutting up?"

"Bastard," Neil muttered, but he seemed unhappy when it appeared as if Andrew was going to walk away, and managed a slight smile when Andrew sat down on the edge of the bed instead; the rest of it was taken up by Ombré and Nuit, while Jorea curled up on Neil’s pillow and began to fuss with his hair. In fact, the large room quickly became infested with pixies in general, but they stayed out of the way, choosing to perch on shelves and in the various plants.

While Abby checked up on a few more critical patients and then grabbed some ingredients to put together, Stuart must have figured out where Andrew had brought Neil since he used the shadows to step into the workroom. "There you are, kiddo." He approached the bed but didn't come too close, as if mindful of upsetting Neil. "Getting some rest? You can come back with me, you know."

Before Andrew could tell the man to fuck off, Neil shook his head. "I appreciate what you did, Uncle Stuart, but I'm staying here for now." His right hand fumbled about on the bed a little, and Andrew only hesitated a moment to reach out for it, which prompted a wave of relief from his idiot. "I'm not ready to leave just yet... but if you could, I'd like you to check on Mum's knowe for me."

Stuart stared at their hands for a few seconds, at Neil's longer, darker fingers entwined with Andrew's thicker, paler ones before he cleared his throat and shot Andrew a scrutinizing look. "You mean _your_ knowe, Nathaniel. Night’s Haven is yours, it's been yours for years now."

Neil groaned as he forced his sore body to sit up so he could rest his head against Andrew's left shoulder, despite Jorea's angry complaints. "I know that, it's just... I'm not ready to leave here just yet," he mumbled, sounding so worn out that Stuart's expression softened.

/ _Truth_./

"I hate to break it to you, kiddo, but word's spreading about what happened today, about how you faced down your father and the Moriyamas for one of your own, how _this_ one,"

" _Andrew_ ," Neil ground out with a short flare of temper.

"How _Andrew_ called people together to taken down those assholes and everything."

/ _Truth_./

"I just said I was going to fetch your idiot nephew and invited some other idiots along," Andrew said as he wrapped his other hand around Neil's nape.

"Whatever," Stuart said, his tone possessing a sour edge. "The thing is, if you didn't want people to think of you as heirs, you just screwed yourselves over on that one." He gave Andrew another intent look. "If you didn't want them to think that there's something going on between the two of you, you _really_ screwed yourselves over."

/ _Truth_./

Neil tensed at that bit of news, which didn't do him any favors in his condition, but all Andrew did was give the idiot's nape a gentle squeeze while he held Stuart's gaze. "So? I thought that had already been settled at the High Court. I'm not doing any more dancing so what else do you want?"

"Wait, _what_?" Neil pulled away a little to 'look' at Andrew, then seemed to remember that wasn't possible, his emotions confused and afraid yet hopeful and wanting. "But...."

A bit annoyed that they were in Abby's workroom with Stuart of all people watching and Jorea sitting on the headboard and two mutts at the foot of the bed, Andrew clicked his tongue as he threaded his fingers into Neil's hair and gave a gentle tug. "It's not the bond and it's _certainly_ not me being Oberon's heir. If anything, it's Fate's way of laughing at me, sticking me with someone like you, but it's definitely not because you're Maeb reincarnated or some stupid magic spell, all right?" For once he didn't try to stifle what he felt, he just let it go and waited for Neil to sense it over the damn bond - and hope that the idiot didn't twist it around somehow.

Neil was quiet for a few seconds before he smiled, the expression true and bright despite the cut to his cheek. "All right," was all he said, but his emotions were so _warm_ and _wanting_ and _trusting_ and made Andrew feel lightheaded just then.

/ ** _Truth_**./

"Well, I _was_ feeling good about things," Stuart griped, but he smiled at Neil all the same. "My people are able to get home okay, so we'll return to Shadow's Edge and tend to ourselves, but I'll look into Night’s Haven and check back with you soon enough." He inched forward and when Neil didn't flinch away, gave his nephew a quick, light hug. "Take care of yourself, kiddo. I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Uncle Stuart. Safe roads," Neil wished him.

As soon as the shadow walker left, Abby was quick to take his place, a mug full of something hot held in her hand and a Brownie changeling next to her holding onto a bowl. "I need you to drink this," she told Neil. "It should help your eyes and give you some relief as well."

/ _Truth_./

Neil reluctantly shifted back from Andrew and accepted the mug, which he held in his lap while Abby knelt down so she could clean the wound on his face. "It's going to scar," she told him in a soft voice, her face drawn in remorse.

/ _Truth_./

"I don't care," Neil admitted, his emotions quiet save for the constant thrum of pain and weariness. "What's one more?"

/ _Truth_./

Well, _Andrew_ cared, but only because it meant that someone had hurt the idiot, not because he thought Neil was any less attractive because of it. Still, Abby shook her head as she finished wiping it clean and then rubbed some sort of salve on it which lessened some of the pain before she applied a bandage to Neil's face.

By then the potion was cool enough for Neil to drink, and whatever was in it relieved more of the pain, as well as knocked him out. Andrew stuck around long enough to make sure Neil was all right (and to promise to not go too far away), and only left once he was certain that Neil truly was asleep and that the mutts and the flying pests were going to watch over him.

"Don't let him get up," he told Nuit. "Sit on him if you have to," he ordered. Nuit smiled and shifted over until he was lying across Neil's lower legs, while Ombré curled up next to Neil's right side, her head on top of the gauntlet. "Good enough."

"He won't leave us behind again," Jorea swore as she resumed undoing all the tangles in Neil's hair; Andrew foresaw Neil waking up to it braided once again.

/ _Truth_./

Andrew didn't bother to figure out which one the torc meant, when it was probably both.

/ _Truth_./

He needed some alcohol.

/ _Truth_./

And bolt cutters.

/... _not-truth_?/

Shut the hell up. "And you, leave him alone," he snapped at Moreau, who was edging closer to Neil's bed.

Moreau drew himself up as straight as possible to glare at Andrew. "You do not have authority over me."

"No, but I can kick your ass," Andrew ignored Abby's scowl and sharp rebuke directed at him right then, "so leave him alone. He's been through enough for you. Go bother Kevin."

That remark drew out a blush of all things from the Leannan Sidhe. "I... you do not order me around," Moreau grumbled, but he backed away from Neil after one more searching glance.

That dealt with, Andrew left a spirit behind as well to make sure no one bothered Neil and went to take care of a few things while Neil remained asleep, pausing only to exchange a curt nod with his brother.

Stuart might have left with his people, but Rheman was still there since Abby and Aaron was tending to several of his; the Tuatha de Danann was gathered with Knox, Alvarez and Dermott along with Wymack, Kevin, and the rest of the Foxes in the common room. "There you are," Wymack called out. "How's Neil?"

"Sleeping," Andrew replied; for a moment Wymack scowled at that, but he quickly picked up on the fact that if Andrew was there and the spirits calm, that Neil was a bit tattered but all right.

'Tattered' was a good definition for most of the people in the room - the majority of them bore various cuts and bruises, had rips and tears in their clothes and even a few claw and burn marks. The left side of Allison's face was purple, blue and green yet she grinned as if it didn't pain her at all, Matt's ridiculous hair was snipped in a few places and Nicky's left hand wrapped as if a couple of fingers had been broken but he appeared pleased with himself. Dermott's long black braid was decidedly shorter and the remains appeared singed, Alvarez had a nasty scratch across her nose and all over her left arm, but of course Kevin and Knox had come through in pretty good shape. "There a reason why everyone's here?" he asked as he leaned against a wall, unwilling to sit amidst so many people.

Kevin handed him a full bottle of whiskey, which was _such_ a good sign. “We’re talking about things. Important things.”

Andrew looked at the bottle, at the earnest expressions on Kevin’s, Knox’s, Renee’s and Dan’s faces and got up to leave without saying a word.

“Wait!” Kevin must have done something because there were several Brownies now blocking the doorway. “Dammit, Andrew, we need you to stay for this! You’re a… well, you’re a _king_.”

/ _Truth_./

“No crown, no kingdom, no _fucking interest_ ,” Andrew drawled as he debated having some spirits bowl the tiny Fae over.

“How about a shiny torc,” Wymack told him as he got up and leaned over with his bruised fists on the table, his dark gaze fixed on Andrew. “Look, I wasn’t too sure of things at first, but I’ve seen you use that thing to force people to tell the truth, and I’ve seen you rally people to you, Andrew. You’ve always had something to you, a core of power and strength, and now I know why. You’re Oberon’s heir.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew gave him a flat look in return as he unscrewed the lid to the bottle. “How many different ways can I say ‘I don’t care’?”

/ _Not-truth_./

“Except I think you do,” Wymack argued. “You’ve always protected your own, and you went after Neil. You knew there would be a cost to that, so don’t try to walk away from it. Clans are rallying to _you_ , are you going to leave them defenceless?”

/ _Truth_./

Dammit. _Dammit_. Andrew paused to drain about a fourth of the bottle before he spoke. “What the hell do you think I can do?”

Wymack grinned as Kevin rushed to his feet. “They need to know that you – that _we_ – support them. That they aren’t without the Three anymore,” Kevin said as he held up his left hand. “Neil is obviously prepared to fight for the Unseelie and they’re rallying behind that fact, over someone standing up for them after so long.”

/ _Truth_./

“Presenting a unified front for once will be important,” Wymack added. “Neil went to face his father for one of his ‘people’, and you and Kevin went after him. People are talking about how the Three are supporting each other – at least now.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew’s brows drew together as he gave Kevin a pointed look. “This isn’t going to become some fucked-up threesome, _ever_.” Kevin gave a frantic shake of his head at that. “We’re not _those_ Three, we’re our own. I’m not going to lord over the damn Fae, they can make up their own minds on things, but I’ll keep other assholes from taking over and we’re _not_ going to be the second act of Oberon, Maeb and Titania.”

/ _Truth_./

Allison laughed and clapped her hands at that announcement while Andrew had some more whiskey. “I can agree with that! There’s no sense in having a nice rebellion if we’re just signing up for new oppressors, after all, even if _Neil’s_ adorable.”

“But… they’re kings, aren’t they?” Nicky asked, his expression more than a little confused. “Don’t they have to rule?”

“I think they can decide what they want to be,” Renee told him with a gentle smile. “While I believe we’ll all feel some sort of draw to them because of our respective bloodlines… I’m happier with the thought of _guardians_ rather than rulers.”

/ _Truth_./

Guardians. Yes, that was something Andrew could live with, and after sharing a look with Kevin, he thought that his friend could, too. He thought that Neil would much prefer it, too, rather than be stuck with being the center of attention as the Unseelie king.

/ _Truth_./

“We protect and guide rather than command,” Kevin said as if feeling out the idea while toying with his ring. “Yes… yes, I think that could work.” He sat down and pulled a bottle of wine toward him. “It’s doable.”

/ _Truth_./

“Now to convince the rest of Fae,” Dan said as she rested her elbows on the table. “I think a lot of them will accept it, it’s why they broke from the High Court in the first place, why they’re complaining about the other Courts in Europe and Asia, but there’s going to be some who like having people in power. Who _want_ to _be_ those people in power.”

/ _Truth_./

“Then we smack them down,” Matt told her with a pleased grin. “I bet the shadow wolves will be happy about a few more snacks.”

Having a feeling that the stupidity would be ongoing for a while, Andrew took the bottle of whiskey with him and returned to Abby’s workroom to wait for a certain idiot to wake up.

*******

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> There you go. THE END.
> 
> So nice to wrap this up.
> 
> Hmmm. Mm...
> 
> What, there's supposed to be more? But Nathan, Riko and Tetsuji are dead! The boys are kings now! More or less...
> 
> Oh well, I GUESS there's still another chapter or two. There's the whole Aaron and Katelyn thing, for the most part, Neil has to find out that he has to do something other than sit beneath a willow tree and play with the pixies, and get on Andrew to go back to the Dark Road. 
> 
> Hmm, and what about Ichirou???
> 
> Hey! Amazing fan art! https://bluetheking.tumblr.com/image/164343634424 Go look!
> 
> OK, dashing off now, will get to comments... hopefully in a day or two. 
> 
> Back to Raven's Partner for a chapter or two, but this weekend has been seriously busy so I may be off the posting schedule for a little bit.  
> *******


	17. Heartlines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, this should be the last chapter, at least for now. It wraps up most plot points and leaves the story at a good point so I'm going to end it here for now. That doesn't mean that if I think I can come up with enough for an epilogue at some point I might add a little to it, and it does leave things open for a short story or two. But I've more than enough other things to write (Raven's Partner and some other stuff, not to mention I'd really like to start the sequel to First Breath after the new year) that I don't want to drag out updates to this.
> 
> Hmm, mentions of past abuse, but that's it for trigger warnings, nothing explicit. Just people discussing it more in an attempt to move on with their lives.  
> *******

*******

Neil smiled when he felt a ‘rush’ of energy from one of Andrew’s spirits brush closer to the soaking pool, which caused Jorea to hiss in displeasure. “Yes?” he asked, uncertain if it was checking up on him or if it had been sent with a purpose; for _some_ reason, his lover was keeping a close eye on him lately. His lover and the shadow wolves and the pixies and basically the whole damn knowe….

Maybe it hadn’t been the wisest of actions, going off to face his father and the Moriyamas by himself, but it had turned out all right, hadn’t it? Mostly all right? He was alive and so was Jean, and it wasn’t as if _all_ of the Fae knowes were in open rebellion….

He was very tired of the lectures and being called an impetuous idiot.

The spirit hovered near the soaking pool again, as close to Neil and Nuit and Ombre as it dared, so Neil sighed as he assumed that Andrew wanted him for something. “All right, give me a minute,” he told the spirit/Andrew before he groaned and climbed out of the wonderful, mineral-heavy hot water; thanks to Abby’s potions, he was mostly healed from the abuse he’d suffered at Baiting’s End. Mostly. There were still a few lingering bruises and some soreness from the beating at Lola’s and Riko’s hands, and Neil’s eyes didn’t tolerate bright light very well anymore.

Jorea and several other pixies tutted and made other noises of complaint as Neil dried himself off then ran his fingers through his damp hair, but there wasn’t much he could do at the moment other than dress himself before allowing the spirit to lead him off to the main building. “ _You are not a dog to be called on a whim_ ,” Jorea muttered as she settled on his right shoulder and began to fuss with his hair.

“ _It’s all right_ ,” Neil told her with a slight smile as the shadow wolves flanked him, his right hand settling on Ombre’s head. Andrew did his best to allow Neil some peace and quiet to heal, facing the Fae who came to see the new ‘kings’ with Kevin and dealing with things that made Neil want to run back to the Dark Road to never return. He’d seek out Neil for various input, but for the most part, he tried to bear the brunt of everything until Neil was fully healed and only sought him out if it was truly important or so the two of them could spend some time alone together.

Neil greatly enjoyed that ‘alone’ time, even if Andrew spent half of it calling him an idiot fox and finding new ways to make Neil swear to never go running off on his own again, and Neil had been too battered to do much besides lie down next to Andrew. What mattered was feeling Andrew’s emotions for him, in knowing that Andrew would take on the rest of the Fae for his sake (had taken on his _father_ for his sake).

So he forced himself to follow the spirit past strange Fae who bowed to him along the way, who murmured ‘Unseelie king’ and ‘Maeb’s heir’ as he walked past, uncomfortable with the attention and reverence. All he wanted was to hide out in the oak tree or beneath the huge willow, but Andrew had sent for him so….

He caught sight of Matt along the way, but his friend appeared busy on an errand and just gave a quick wave in passing. Fortunately it wasn’t much longer before the spirit led Neil to Betsy’s workroom, to which Neil used the shadows to slip inside.

“-quartz for warding something like that, but- ah, hello!” Betsy paused in whatever she’d been telling Andrew to give Neil a smile, her face lightening up with warmth as she stepped away from a large table cluttered with various gemstones and fine powders in small bottles. “How are you feeling today?”

“Better,” he admitted as he went over to Andrew’s side and smiled at the mix of concentration, concern and affection he felt over the link. “Renee’s pools are amazing.” As he spoke, Andrew reached out to gently brush the tips of his fingers over the healed scar on the right side of Neil’s face as if testing to see if it pained him or not – it didn’t, so Neil caught his lover’s hand and gave it a quick, light squeeze to show he wasn’t upset or bothered by the wound. “You wanted me here?”

“Bee and I worked out something for you,” Andrew explained as he twisted his hand about in Neil’s hold until _he_ had Neil’s fingers trapped within his own. “Though it’s not an excuse for you to be a stupid fool and go running off into trouble again.”

Jorea gave a smug little laugh at that while Neil glared at his lover. “I wasn’t-“

“Wasn’t thinking at the time?” Andrew asked as he tugged Neil closer. “Yes, we can definitely agree on that.”

Neil tried to hit him with his left hand, but Andrew caught it in time. “I’m tired of arguing about this! I did wh-“

“An incredibly stupid thing,” Andrew intoned in a flat manner while simmering anger and a sense of protectiveness flowed into Neil. If there wasn’t some concern and a remnant of fear as well, he’d knee the overprotective bastard and use the shadows to leave.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a quiet voice as he shuffled a little closer. “I’ve told you that already, and I mean it. I didn’t want anyone else to be hurt.”

Andrew let go of his left hand to cup the nape of his neck instead. “I don’t want any more of your ‘sorry’s. You’ve sworn a promise to me so don’t break it,” he insisted before he urged Neil’s head down for a kiss.

There was some grumbling from Jorea and the brush of her wings as she fluttered away, but all Neil cared about right then was the feel of Andrew’s lips on his own, the warmth and solidness of that hand on the back of his neck, the intoxicating emotions crashing into him. He let out a slight moan and fumbled in the air with his left hand, uncertain if it was all right to touch Andrew’s shoulder, right when there was the sound of someone clearing their throat.

He pulled away in a rush, his face hot with embarrassment and left hand clamped around his right wrist to keep the gauntlet from reacting (as if it were that simple), while there was a slight frown on Andrew’s face  (which belied the annoyance and frustration he felt just then) as he gazed at a smiling Betsy. “What?”

“I didn’t think you wanted an audience in case you went any further,” she declared. “Although if that was the point of having me stand here for this, by all means, continue,” she said while looking at Andrew with a wide grin.

Her… protégé’s? hazel eyes narrowed as he tugged Neil closer to the table, that sense of annoyance growing stronger. “No fucking way. And what, you’re a pervert now?”

“I keep telling you, don’t let the staid image fool you,” Betsy murmured as she fiddled with her glasses. “But what’s wrong with enjoying the sight of two young men, one of whom I care deeply about, finding happiness with each other?”

“Uhm, why am I here?” Neil asked, his voice sharp with growing panic.

“Yes, exactly,” Andrew agreed as he gave Neil’s right hand a quick squeeze. “Bee and I were working on something for you, both to help with your eyes and to keep any assholes from exploiting that weakness again.” Something akin to smugness flowed into Neil.

“Oh?” Neil smiled as an excited Jorea landed on his shoulder and Ombre pressed against his right hip, while Nuit took to circling around all of them and Andrew. “What is it?”

Andrew let go of his hand so he could pick up a small case from the table. “Put these on.”

Neil accepted the case and opened it to reveal a small pair of spectacles with silver wire frames and pale smoky lenses. He was careful with the item since he could sense a faint tingle of magic in the glass and silver, the scent of Andrew’s and that of yarrow and cocoa (from Betsy, he assumed).

The frames were light on his face and comfortable, but more importantly, they filtered the light inside of the room to the point that Neil felt as if he was back on the Dark Road. He sighed in delight as the faint headache he’d been left with ever since regaining his sight after Baiting’s End began to ease. “You said something about protection?” he asked Andrew as he turned toward his lover while tucking the case into his pouch.

“Yes.” Andrew reached out to adjust the spectacles on Neil’s face. “They’re charmed to prevent any light spells from blinding you again.”

“There’s still the over-all effects of such spells on you,” Betsy added, “but we figured the main thing is keeping you from being blinded in a dangerous situation or risking further damage to your sight. We think we can create a couple of charms or a cloak which will protect you long enough for the gauntlet to cover you.”

As it had done back in his father’s – now Neil’s – knowe. “I… this is a rather clever bit of magic and will be very helpful,” Neil said, aware that at least Andrew could feel his gratitude at the moment.

“Just don’t lose it or forget it and then get a light spell lobbed at your fool ass,” Andrew said as he ran his fingers ever so lightly along the edge of Neil’s left ear.

“Ba-ahstard,” Neil stuttered out and shivered in pleasure while Betsy watched on in amusement. “Uhm, is there anything else?”

“Unfortunately, that’s it,” the Leannan Sidhe remarked, which earned her a sour look from Andrew.

“Let’s go,” he told Neil, who accepted his hand with a smile and slipped all of them to the willow tree.

“They really are very clever,” Neil said as he removed the enchanted item since it was dark enough beneath the tree that he didn’t need the spectacles. “They’ll come in handy during the day.”

“Make sure to keep them close,” Andrew told him as they sat down on the soft, moss covered ground. “So Renee’s latest soak helped?” He held out his hand and, after Neil nodded, stroked it along Neil’s chest in a manner that was more clinical than amorous as if checking for any remaining sore spots.

“Yes, whatever herbs and minerals she added after talking to Abby really seemed to work.” The two of them had been tweaking the pool to help with Neil’s injuries, a mixture of light and iron exposure and blunt trauma – the gauntlet had shielded him from the worst of it, from broken skin and bones, but he’d still been in his father’s and Moriyamas’ hands a little too long.

Andrew huffed at that, and Neil smiled when he felt the touch along his chest turn gentler, the emotions between them warmer. So he leaned in closer and let his own emotions speak for him (they were learning to do that for the smaller things, to trust a little more and not have to speak aloud all the time) before they were kissing once again.

They didn’t take it that far beyond it, not when Kevin and Wymack expected them soon, but it felt so nice, Andrew’s insistent mouth against his, those lips and fingers so gentle and teasing on his ears and neck. The feel of Andrew’s body so strong and broad beneath his hands and pressed against him, and then the minute trembles when Neil nibbled on Andrew’s neck or lightly ran his nails down his lover’s chest.

The rush of feelings across their bond, the echoing of trust and need and desire, of something so pure and terrifying and aching. Something which neither of them spoke about, but the gauntlet had settled after that day in Abby’s workroom, after Andrew had declared… well, when Andrew was the only one for Neil. They didn’t need to dance in front of the rest of the Fae or any other stupid courtship rituals when they had _this_ between them.

He was sprawled out on the ground with one hand in Andrew’s short hair and another stroking along his lover’s broad shoulders when Arrant flew beneath the tree to complain about an uppity Brownie standing outside. Neil sighed in disappointment as Andrew pulled away. “Kevin.”

“A very annoying Kevin,” Andrew agreed as he rocked back onto his heels while he reached for their discarded shirts, the torc around his neck gleaming in the twilight atmosphere beneath the willow. “Does there really need to be three of us?”

Neil smiled at that and leaned in for once last quick kiss as he accepted his hooded tunic. “Something about stupid tradition and three bloodlines.”

“Huh.” Andrew stared at Neil while he put on his top, most likely noting the faint remaining bruises, then tugged on his black t-shirt before standing up and holding out a hand. Once on his feet, Neil put on the new spectacles and pulled the hood over his head, which earned him a low grumble of displeasure from Jorea, and grinned as he once more used the shadows to take all of them to where Kevin and the others were waiting rather than allow the Brownie to escort them.

He’d guessed the one common room and hadn’t been wrong, since Wymack, Kevin, Rheman, Jean, Jeremy Knox, and several Foxes were gathered there, along with platters of food and pitchers of drinks. Andrew pulled him toward the large table where everyone was gathered, and Neil accepted a goblet of watered down wine from Renee since he’d already eaten (the shadow wolves made sure he was well-fed, considering his need to heal quickly).

“About time the two of you showed up,” Wymack complained while Allison gave Neil an approving smile, probably over the new spectacles.

“You seem to be doing just fine without us,” Andrew remarked as he dragged a plate of potato croquettes toward him. “You and Queen Kevin.”

Kevin stiffened at that comment while Jeremy smiled and Jean made a sniffing sound. “ _One_ of us has to work, considering the fact that Neil’s recovering and you’re lazy as hell,” Kevin complained.

“I told you that I wouldn’t rule and I meant it. We’re supposed to be _guardians_ ,” Andrew shot back.

“Very true, but a little fighting needs to be done, at least at first,” Dan argued. “So far the knowes wanting independence are holding their own, especially since those loyal to the Moriyamas are breaking down in confusion.”

Wymack nodded in agreement. “There’s still some stragglers, some Fae who are coming back from the mortal world or who are unsworn, who don’t have any knowes to claim them who now want a place in our world when it’s clear they don’t have to kowtow to a High Court which won’t respect or even acknowledge them.” He gave a pointed look at Andrew and Neil – probably because Andrew was a changeling and Neil was Unseelie, to which fell the more ‘unusual’ bloodlines.

Or perhaps because Neil had two empty knowes to his name at the moment.

Neil sighed as he leaned against Andrew, as always grateful for his lover’s strength and support, as Andrew drank his whiskey and gave everyone a blank look. “I’d planned to open up at least one knowe to the Unseelie needing a home,” Neil admitted. “There’s Baiting’s End right now, as long as someone wants to step in as at least an overseer for me, maybe even take it off my hands.” He really didn’t want to go back there anymore than was necessary, not after all the painful memories the knowe held for him – not only of his most recent visit, but the years before then when he’d lived there with his father, when each day had been filled with some sort of abuse at Nathan Wesninski’s hand – his or Lola’s or DiMaccio’s or Jackson’s or-

No, Neil was more than willing to allow someone to take over the knowe in his place.

Rheman gave him an incredulous look for that statement. “You really would be willing to hand over a knowe like that?”

He felt Andrew’s dislike and anger for the man and leaned a little more against his lover. “Yes, I would – Baiting’s End might be mine by blood, but I don’t have any fond memories of the place. As long as it’s serving a good purpose, I don’t care if someone else is ruling over it as long as they do it well.”

“Such as?”

Neil frowned at the question, at basically being put on the spot… and then looked over at Renee. She was another Unseelie, was someone who’d known abuse and pain in her past, had struggled through hard times and was doing everything to overcome that, to make things better not only for herself but other people as well. As much as Neil had felt uncomfortable around her at first, he trusted her now, and knew that _Andrew_ trusted her. “Would you be willing to take over the knowe for me?”

Renee appeared stunned by the request and wasn’t the only one, judging by some of the expressions around the table, yet Dan, Wymack, Matt and Allison were very pleased and Andrew calm. “Are you sure?” she asked with obvious reluctance.

“You’re Unseelie, and while the knowe is open to all, I’d planned for it to be a place where the pixies, shadow wolves and others like us could go,” Neil admitted. “There and Night’s Haven.” However, he intended to take responsible for his mother’s knowe in the end. “I trust that you can handle the responsibility,” he told the naiad.

“I….” Renee let out a shuddering breath as she shook her head. “It’s a lot, having the responsibility of a knowe and everyone sworn to it.”

Andrew scoffed at that statement. “Tell me that a puddle girl like you isn’t meant for such a thing, considering how you meddle in everything. You’ll do fine.” He waited until Renee met his gaze and slowly nodded, his emotions a mixture of solemn/confidence/exasperation.

Allison scoffed as well. “As if you’ll be doing it by yourself.” She reached over to give Renee a one-arm hug while staring down Wymack. “Unless there’s any objection to us going?”

The Daoine Sidhe was blank-faced for a moment until he grinned, the expression oddly proud. “I keep telling you ingrates that you’re free to move on whenever you’re ready. I’d never hold any of you back from an opportunity like this, you always have my full support.”

Renee’s breath hitched again as she gazed at Allison. “Do you… you don’t have to leave-“

“ _We’re_ doing this,” Allison told her as she slid her hand down to entwine their fingers together. “Unless you don’t want any help.” Her smile was bright but there was a hint of uncertainty in her blue eyes.

“No, I do!” Renee was quick to assure her as she clutched at the Valkyrie’s hand. “With your help we can create a wonderful safe haven for changelings and the lesser Fae,” she declared before she glanced at Neil. “That is, if you’re certain? To really give up a knowe like that?”

He shook his head as he ran his fingers over the silver gauntlet. “I don’t need two of them, and… I could never be comfortable there, not after everything that happened. Just be certain to leave it open to the pixies and any shadow wolves, that’s all I ask.”

“Of course,” Renee assured him before nodding to Jorea. “I look forward to working with your people on the gardens.”

“And I think it would be great to establish a proper wild hunt or two,” Allison said as she stared at Ombre. “It’s time to take back a bit of our power.”

As long as they left the Fae alone, Neil wasn’t going to complain.

Meanwhile, Rheman gave Neil a worrying look. “Some people aren’t going to be pleased to know that you passed on such an important knowe to a naiad.”

“I don’t _care_ ,” Neil told him with a cold smile while Nuit made a rough coughing sound.

“Exactly,” Andrew said as he leaned forward, his gaze intent on the Tuatha de Danann. “These are the new rules, remember? New big three, so that means new people in charge over all. You don’t have to be a damn purebred or all fucked up because your great-grandmother was also your grandmother like _some_ people,” he paused to poke Neil in the right side of the face, “to be responsible for a bunch of assholes.”

“Thanks so much,” Neil muttered, even as he let his amusement cross over the bond they shared.

“Hush, inbred idiot foxes are to be quiet now,” Andrew told him, which made Jean glare at the necromancer and Jeremy gape in astonishment.

Rheman gave them a wary look before he shook his head. “Just as long as you know that some people are going to protest this.”

Kevin tapped his left hand against the table, the heavy gold of his ring clanging loud against the wood. “They’re going to protest no matter what we do – at least _some_ of them,” he pointed out with a haughty stare. “Mainly the purebloods who wanted a shot at Baiting’s End and Neil themselves, who are jealous over him handing it to Renee. But there are many more lesser Fae who will support his decision, who will cheer over one of their own being granted such an honor and a responsibility.”

“Exactly,” Dan agreed while Allison appeared to bristle at the ‘lesser Fae’ comment. “One of the biggest complaints among our race is that the majority of the knowes are in the hands of purebloods tied to Firstborns. This is an important step forward, as is opening up several to the Fae who’ve been shunted out into the mortal world or neglected in the past couple of centuries. That alone is going to swing a good bit of the Fae to our cause – the pureblood are in the minority, after all.”

Wymack nodded in agreement before he looked over at Neil. “How much longer until Night’s Haven is open?”

Neil shrugged as he rubbed at Ombre’s ears. “The last message I received from my uncle stated that he was almost done with clearing the spells, so a couple more days?” It was difficult to think that Neil and Andrew would be leaving the Foxhole Court soon, but with so many changelings, half-bloods and lesser Fae appearing in search of a Court, they needed to settle the Fae sooner rather than later. At least they could use the shadows to return to Wymack’s knowe whenever they wanted, to visit the place which had been Andrew’s home for decades and a surprising sanctuary for Neil.

“Good.” Wymack turned his attention onto Kevin, who suddenly became flustered for some reason. “What about you?”

“Ah… I’ve been working on Coomlea with Jean’s and Jeremy’s help,” Kevin admitted, the words little more than a stutter and a slight flush to his cheeks. “Maybe another week or two.”

“All right.” Wymack gave Kevin a puzzled look while Andrew’s emotions were amused for some reason, and Renee had a tiny, pleased smile on her face. “Not that I’m a hurry to kick any of you out of here, except maybe for that foul-tempered dwarf,” Andrew gave the man a rude gesture for the comment, “but people will be happy when they’re settled in a new court.”

“I’ll take Renee and Allison to Baiting’s End tomorrow,” Neil swore, and felt some relief when there was a pulse of determination and protectiveness over the bond with Andrew, enough to let him know that his lover would tag along as well.

After that everyone focused on the food and drinks, so Neil sat there nursing some flavored water while the rest ate. Dan asked him some questions about the groves in Baiting’s End, which he told her there should be plenty of trees big enough for her to establish a path or two between the two knowes as long as his father hadn’t cut any down, and then Allison began discussing plans on redecorating the knowe (Neil knew that her family was wealthy and had thought her to have been disinherited, but apparently she’d retained some wealth despite falling out with her parents).

Jean managed a brief discussion with him about his health and the spectacles before a spirit knocked a glass of wine onto the Leannan Sidhe’s lap. Neil sighed at that and gave an internally smug Andrew a weary look while both Kevin and Jeremy fussed over Jean. “Really?”

“What?” Andrew gave him a blank look in return. “I’m helping him out?”

“How?” Neil glanced back at his friend to see a very flustered Jean dealing with two rather attentive Tuatha de Danann. “Uhm… okay?”

More amusement flowed over the bond. “Come on.” Andrew grabbed a bottle of wine and the last bite of his chocolate tart, which he tossed into his mouth before he tugged on Neil’s sleeve. When Jorea made to follow, he waved her aside. “He’ll be with me the rest of the night.”

“Hmph, guard him well,” she insisted before she resumed tearing into a large leg of chicken the same size as her.

Andrew rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything else as he led Neil to his rooms; they spent a lot of time out in the garden, but Andrew was rather insistent about sleeping in a real bed at night, and Neil found that he didn’t mind being inside so much as long as he had his lover beside him. So Neil smiled as he sank down on the large piece of furniture while the wolves made themselves comfortable about the room, the faint echoes of spirits whirling around for a moment as Andrew sipped the wine over by the desk. “What’s going on with Jean and Kevin?”

“And Knox, don’t leave him out,” Andrew said as he set the bottle aside. “The morons are fumbling their way into a relationship, more or less.”

“Okay.” Neil thought about that for a few seconds and remembered the conversation at the table with Nicky the one night. “ _Really_? But that’s… _really_?” He tried to wrap his mind around it while Andrew came over to straddle his lap, his motions slow enough that Neil could push him away or tell him ‘no’.

“What, you have a problem with it?”

“Not… not really?” Neil smiled at his lover as Andrew toyed with the hair covering the back of his neck. “I just… the three of them? How does that work?” He drew in a sharp breath and closed his eyes as unwanted memories surfaced, memories which he pushed away. “I mean, not like- I guess I just don’t understand wanting two people like that when all I’ve ever wanted was one, and even _that_ was a surprise.”

The feel of a soft, stroking touch to his scarred right cheek made him open his eyes, as did the concern coming from Andrew. “You don’t have to understand it. Just stand back with the rest of us as we watch Kevin flail about as he tries to stop being a boring ass long enough to ‘properly court’ Moreau and Knox.”

Neil laughed a little at that. “Of course you’re loving this, aren’t you?” He tilted his face into Andrew’s caress and smiled. “I suppose it makes sense now, why he reacted like that whenever Jean was brought up, and he better treat him right.” He also supposed it might be why Jean had seemed to be upset over Kevin ‘abandoning’ him when he’d left Evermore.

“Enough about Kevin,” Andrew said as he cupped Neil’s face between his hands. “Yes or no?”

“Yes,” Neil breathed out, and there was more of Andrew’s wonderful kisses, was the new spectacles carefully being set aside so Andrew could help Neil fumble out of his clothes then stretch out on top of him once he was sprawled out on the bed.

Odd, how Neil welcomed the sensation of Andrew’s solidness pressing onto him, pushing him into the soft mattress. How he didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around his lover’s shoulders, his legs around Andrew’s strong thighs, and revel in the sensation of weight and friction and warmth. Andrew never pinned down his hands or legs, never pushed down too hard, and Neil never touched past where he’d been given permission – and it was impossible to forget that it was _Andrew_ he was allowing to touch him, not when he breathed in that lingering scent of ivy and fresh earth, when there was that sense of immense power humming beneath his fingertips along with the rasp of stubble or soft hair, when such potent emotions washed into him even as his own heart raced with need/desire/pleasure/that intense, nameless (not really) _thing_ between them.

He gasped at a sudden nibble to his left ear, the pleasure jolting down to the core of his body, and shuddered when Andrew did it again. “Nah-ah! Drew!” His back arched from the bed as he came, his fingertips dug into his lover’s shoulders, and shivered when the pleasure spiked again as Andrew panted against the side of his neck.

They lay on the bed for a minute or so, Neil feeling almost boneless and utterly content and ready to fall asleep when a certain bastard groaned before he pulled away – moved off of Neil and then yanked him onto his feet. “What?” Neil squawked as he fought to remain upright.

“Shower,” Andrew informed him, his voice gruff and emotions languid.

“ _You’re an asshole_ ,” Neil muttered in old Fae.

“I don’t care,” Andrew said, “shower, then bed.”

Neil squinted at his lover, uncertain if Andrew had figured out what those words had meant or if it had just been a lucky guess, and decided he was too tired to care.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about ‘showers’, but they did make cleaning one’s self an expedient chore, which was a good thing when one was sleepy. Soon enough they were tucked into a tidied-up bed with Andrew’s back toward the wall. The two of them sleeping together was another new thing since Neil’s little ‘adventure’ – for some reason, Andrew didn’t trust Neil to not go running off in the middle of the night anymore.

Neil was used to sleeping with other people or creatures, had slept back to back with his mother or with the shadow wolves around him, but Andrew had spent the last several decades sleeping by himself. At least with the spirits to watch over him, he’d gained the ability to relax somewhat during the night, so it wasn’t too rough of an adjustment, them sharing a bed – that and the bond between them seemed to help. On some level, part of their minds realized who the other person was in the bed, that they were ‘safe’.

Which was also good, when one of them had nightmares. Which happened often, between Andrew’s lingering fears of Neil leaving again and Neil still struggling to resolve everything about his father and his time in Moriyama hands. The prospect of returning to Baiting’s End was probably to blame for the terrible dream that night, of him being trapped in the knowe without any shadows while his father hunted him down, and he woke up to Andrew’s arm loose around his waist and Ombre’s cold nose against his right hand, the spirits whirling around the room enough to create a faint breeze while Nuit stood guard in the center of it and concern/exhaustion/exasperation flowed across the bond.

“Ah, sor-“

“Just go back to sleep,” Andrew told him, yet his arm tightened around Neil to hug him closer and his face pressed against the back of Neil’s neck. Smiling a little at the reminder of how he was safe here, how his father and Riko were dead, Neil closed his eyes and did just that.

After a quick breakfast, Neil and Andrew (and Nuit and Ombre and Jorea) took Allison and Renee to Baiting’s End. Neil shivered at the eerie quietness of the knowe, at how ‘asleep’ it felt; it had always been so active when he’d lived there as a child, filled with his father’s people as they’d hurried to obey the man’s orders, coming and going to various parts of Fae and the mortal world.

“It’s… well, it’ll hold a lot of people,” Renee remarked, voice a little awed and eyes wide. “And I can sense some pools, ponds and streams here, which is good. I’ll have to purify most of them, though.”

“We’ll need to find all of the goblin wine and fruit first, and get rid of it before we allow any changelings into the place,” Allison stated as she glanced around with her hands on her hips.

“That was in part how the knowe made money,” Neil reminded the two, and received a glare from Allison and a hurt look from Renee. “But I’m sure you can plant something else of value instead.”

“Especially if we have land favored by the pixies,” Renee said as she nodded to Jorea. “We’ll figure it out, I’m sure.”

Allison glanced around them a little more before she gave a decisive nod. “It’s going to be a lot of work, but who the hell cares? It’ll be our own place where no one can tell us what the fuck to do or who the hell to accept.”

Renee smiled at her girlfriend (Neil was going to assume if they were sharing the responsibilities of a knowe together, that _something_ had happened between the two to make things official while he’d been off getting tortured and healing – that and the handholding. There was a lot of handholding going on, and more smugness from Andrew tinged with a bit of disgust which Neil assumed was over said handholding and the smiles since there was still some of that affection for Renee) with blatant adoration. “It’s going to be wonderful.”

“So happy for you,” Andrew drawled. “Do your Suzy Homemaker thing on your own time, let’s get this transfer or whatever done with, all right?” That was directed at Neil.

Allison gave Andrew a sour look. “Can we ban _him_ from ever coming back here?”

“No,” Renee scolded her before she gave Neil a tentative smile. “If you’re still sure about this. It _is_ a lot to give up.”

“It isn’t,” he assured her. “This place was never a home, and I truly believe you’ll make it one.” It didn’t hold any awful memories for Renee, and from what he could tell from her past, she’d always been in search of a place to take her in, to be that home. The Foxhole Court had done that… but Renee was strong and powerful and had an inner core to her which would allow her to own a knowe, to be the protector which many Fae needed while always putting their needs first. She’d also have Allison at her side to aid her. “Ah, give me your hand?”

Renee’s smile strengthened as she held out her right hand, especially when Andrew made a snide comment about ‘don’t go bonding to each other’. Neil gave his lover a narrow look at that before he closed his eyes and focused on the knowe, how he felt the weight of it in his mind for several seconds before he summoned the scent of Renee’s magic as well and then willed the knowe over to her.

The scent of Renee’s magic was heavy in the air as Neil wavered on his feet, not so much from the loss of energy but from the ‘weight’ of the knowe transferring from him to Renee. Still, Andrew was quick to wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him close. “What is it?”

“It’s done,” Neil told him. “It’s hers now.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Renee exclaimed as Allison held on to her in a similar manner, her dark eyes wide and face lit up in joy. “It’s _amazing_.”

“I’d say it worked,” Allison remarked in a wry tone as she hugged the naiad.

“Great, then we can leave?” Once again, Andrew addressed that question to Neil, who shrugged as he gazed at Renee.

“Let the pixies know they can come whenever they want,” she told them. “I want to stay here a little longer before I return to the Foxhole Court.”

“We can have a couple of other shadow wolves stop by so you have a way to return,” Neil offered, delighted for an excuse to return to the Dark Road even if just for a few minutes. Andrew’s brow creased a little at that, but he didn’t complain.

“Come on, let’s check out a few things,” Allison urged as she tugged Renee toward the main building. “See how much you’re going to have to ask the place to change – right now it’s a bit too gothic for my taste, we need a little more light.”

Neil held out his left hand to Andrew, who muttered something about ‘junkies’ as they slid through the shadows onto the Dark Road. He laughed at the feel of returning ‘home’, at being able to slide the charmed spectacles up onto the top of his head and the way that Ombre and Nuit yipped in excitement while there were loud howls in the far distance. Andrew clicked his tongue a couple of times before pulling Neil in for a brief kiss. “We’re not staying here long,” he warned when they stepped apart.

“No, let me just get something to eat and the pack to catch up,” Neil agreed as he glanced around to re-acquaint himself with where he was in the magical realm before leading his lover in the direction of a grove of trees in the near distance. “So, it looks like Renee and Allison are happy together?”

“Puddle girl finally got her Valkyrie,” Andrew said as he shook out a cigarette. “I’d like to see anyone try to mess with them between how much of a bitch Allison can be and how much of a mistake it is to take Renee at face value.”

“Yes.” Neil shivered a little as he thought about the glimpses of darkness he’d caught from the naiad. “They’ll make for an interesting court.” One much better than his father’s.

“Now for your uncle to get off his ass with Night’s Haven, they won’t be the only ones.”

Neil paused for a moment and turned around to face Andrew, who was busy lighting a cigarette at the moment; his lover’s emotions were mostly calm, were a blend of exasperation and wariness and that thrilling thrum of affection, as they usually were when the two of them were off on some sort of task. “Are you sure you don’t mind going there?” he asked, for once wishing he bore the gold torc around Andrew’s neck instead of the silver gauntlet.

Andrew was still for a second or two before he let out a thick plume of smoke, during which Ombre and Nuit pressed against Neil’s legs and even Jorea was quiet. “It means that I don’t have to put up with Wymack’s grumpy ass anymore, so why wouldn’t I be sure?”

But Aaron was staying behind at the Foxhole Court to continue his lessons with Abby, even though Nicky was coming with them – Lady Amelia had finally released Erik from her court as a ‘goodwill’ gesture to the ‘new’ kings, so the two men were coming along to help Neil run his knowe (since he had no clue how to do that, having lived outside of one for most of his life). “But-“

Andrew flicked ash in Neil’s direction, which prompted a wave of swearing in Pixish from Jorea, before he reached out to brush aside the bangs falling onto Neil’s face. “It’s time to move on,” he said, his deep voice and emotions solemn. “We’re not ruling the damn Fae, but we need to stand on our own for this to work, to not be sworn to anyone else. That and… I think Aaron and I need some space, too,” he added, as if guessing at Neil’s thoughts. “It’s not as if I’ll ever be that far away, not with you and the mutts as my own personal taxi service.”

Neil huffed at that while Jorea did more cursing. “I see, now I know why you’re keeping me around.”

“Of course,” Andrew agreed as he gave Neil’s shoulder a gentle push to get him to move. “You’re slightly more bearable than Kevin’s teleport spells.”

“ _Why are we stuck with such a rude one_?” Jorea asked in a plaintive manner as she took to tugging on Neil’s hair.

“ _Just lucky, I guess_?” Neil laughed when she made an indelicate noise at that.

He was snacking on some fruit when the rest of the pack showed up, and after much petting and fussing, sent Pilier and Danseur off to Baiting’s End before he gathered some more fruit to take back to the Foxhole Court.

Once there, it was being dragged into more discussions with Wymack, Kevin and the others (he paid attention to Kevin, Jean and Jeremy Knox that time, and caught many blushing looks and aborted touches between the three); it seemed that everyone considered Neil recovered enough at that point to include him in the mess that was Fae politics restructuring.

“Uhm… I think I left behind something important on the Dark Road,” Neil said when Kevin and Dan took to arguing about a wording on a declaration for the eighth time in the past hour.

“Yes, your brain,” Andrew shot back. “And no, you can’t go run and hide there.”

“ _Bastard_ ,” Neil muttered, and sighed when he got the slightest of smiles and a gentle flick to his left ear in return.

They had to step in to break up a fight at the Gleaming Sands knowe, but all it seemed to take was Neil and Andrew arriving with several shadow wolves flanking them and spirits tearing through the main courtyard, and weapons were dropped in haste as various Fae knelt with their heads bowed. Nuit yawned in boredom while Ombre whined at the obvious lack of a meal. “I know,” Neil told her while he rubbed at her ears. “Maybe someone will put up more of a fight so you can have a nice snack?”

For some reason there were a few loud gulping sounds at that, along with some whispered prayers.

“Oberon’s balls, you’re not here to feed your damn pets,” Wymack complained as he tapped his unsheathed broadsword against his right shoulder.

“I don’t see why they can’t have some fun, too,” Neil shot back. “And help eliminate a few problems while at it.” Ombre yipped in agreement while Jorea nodded.

“He truly is Maeb reborn,” a tall Merrow with pale blue hair said with evident pride.

Wymack rubbed at his forehead as if he had a headache while he stared at Andrew, who merely shrugged as if to say ‘what did you expect’. “I think we’ve got everything under control now,” the Daoine Sidhe gritted out as he waved them away.

“Doubtful,” Andrew remarked, yet he gave Wymack a two-fingered salute before grasping Neil’s hand so they could leave.

The day didn’t get any better, since they ran into Aaron on the way to visit Abby; the brothers hadn’t been speaking much to each other because of the ‘Katelyn’ mess, which made Neil anxious any time they crossed paths. He hated how Andrew’s emotions took on such a dark, abrasive turn, hated how Aaron blamed his brother for things, hated how two people who should care for each other (from what Nicky said) just tore into each other instead.

“You fucking bastard!” Aaron shouted while Andrew sighed. “Really? After all the shit you’ve pulled over the years, now a damn spell to keep me from her?”

Oh, that would explain the recent satisfaction Neil had felt over the bond, along with the anger/aggravation/disappointment. “You seem to have a learning curve when it comes to your little sluts, so I figured I’d help move things along,” Andrew informed his brother as he turned around to face him, the spirits fanned out around them and Nuit at his side. When Neil went to stand next to him, however, Andrew pushed him back a little.

“She’s not a slut!” Aaron all but yelled, his face twisted with rage. “No more than your boyfriend right there is, why can’t you understand that!”

The slight bit of amusement which Andrew felt was wiped away. “Leave him out of this.”

“Why?” Aaron demanded to know. “You can start a war over him, can turn everything upside down and-“

Andrew held up his hand while it appeared as if a spirit stifled his brother’s verbal tirade. “Because I at least _acknowledged_ things with him, dammit.” He reached back to grasp Neil’s right wrist and hold it up, the gauntlet a thick band around his wrist much like it had been since Andrew had come to rescue him at Baiting’s End – there hadn’t been any more of Maeb’s unwanted thoughts taking over, no more of the enchanted item reacting except to spread out a little if it thought he needed a weapon or shield. No, not when Neil was now certain about Andrew and stepping (somewhat) into the role of the Unseelie king. “And you can get near your mostly human slut once you’re willing to tell her the truth about everything.” He scoffed at the stunned look on Aaron’s face. “That’s what the spell’s about, I worked it out with Bee and everything. You stop lying to _her_ and leading her on, stop _lying to yourself_ , and you can be with her.”

“But….” Now Aaron appeared indecisive; it was upsetting to Neil to see those emotions on a face so similar to his lover’s. “But I….”

“It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Andrew asked in a taunting manner. “To let her know that she’s a changeling, to work magic with her? Well, now’s your chance.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Aaron admitted in a quiet voice.

Something close to pity flowed across the bond. “I know,” Andrew told him and then fell quiet.

Before anything else could be said, Neil pulled his lover through the shadows to the willow tree, and with a look sent Jorea and the pixies flittering about away. As Andrew sank down, he went to fetch one of the remaining bottles of whisky then sat down near his lover as it was snatched from his hands.

“You cast the spell to make him do something,” he said once Andrew had several swallows of the strong alcohol. “You knew he’d never do it on his own.” As he’d learned over the last couple of months, Andrew did whatever he believed necessary for those he’d sworn to watch over and protect. If the people didn’t appreciate that ‘help’? Andrew didn’t seem to care.

Andrew shrugged, but his emotions indicated that Neil had been correct. “He would have dragged it on forever, knowing him.”

Probably, if he’d already been dating the young woman for a few months. “So that’s what you’ve been doing lately, along with overthrowing centuries of Fae power structure?” Neil didn’t mind since he hadn’t been able to do much other than rest the first few days after Andrew had rescued him.

“Basically.” Andrew had a little more whisky before he set the bottle aside.

“Why the sudden change?” The last he’d known, Andrew wanted the young woman out of Aaron’s life.

Andrew was quiet for another minute while he had more whisky. “Because I talked to Bee a little about a few things. Because Aaron helped out with you and… enough about Aaron,” he said, his emotions in flux and face too blank for Neil’s tastes.

That Neil could agree with, especially since it seemed that their time alone together was cut shorter and shorter. He smiled as Andrew pulled him onto his lap and asked ‘yes or no’ and pushed aside everything but what his lover made him feel.

Stuart returned to the Foxhole Court the next day, eager to show Night’s Haven to Neil. Filled with a bit of trepidation, Neil went off with his uncle to visit a knowe he’d only heard stories about, had listened to his mother talk about when they were alone together with evident longing in her voice.

The knowe had allowed Stuart in because of his blood ties to Mary and Neil, but it ‘closed in’ on Neil the moment he stepped inside, ‘wrapped’ around him with the full weight of magic and inheritance once his feet touched its lush soil. He shivered as the magic took effect, as he felt the entirety of the magical pocket realm, as he knew each and every inch of it, every space of the ornate buildings, every plant and rock and stream and piece of sand on its beach. There was a warmth to Night’s Haven that had been missing from Baiting’s End, a lack of pain and death, and… it was as if the knowe was lonely after being left empty for so long.

He let out a slow breath and gave Andrew a tremulous smile before he tapped Jorea lightly on the knees. “Let the pixies know that this knowe is open to them.” Night’s Haven, as befitting one of Maeb’s beloved offspring, was a very spacious knowe and filled with rambunctious gardens and even woods long neglected.

Jorea let out a pleased shout as she leapt into the air, pixie dust sparkling around her and Neil. “Yes! We’ll be back, soon.” Then she darted off, probably to bring back a horde of her people.

“Well, Wymack will be pleased to get rid of some of them,” Andrew muttered as he swiped at his face to clean it of the dust.

“I’m sure Jorea will leave a clan behind so all of her hard work isn’t wasted,” Neil said with a smile as he patted Ombre’s back. “There’s more than enough room for the pack here, too, and I’m sensing plenty of wild game, too.” That wrung a happy whine from the wolves.

“Great, you can run around with them like the idiot you are while I stay in bed,” Andrew mumbled around the cigarette he just lit up. Stuart appeared offended by that at first, until he noticed Neil’s smile.

“Really? _He’s_ who you picked, kiddo?”

“I think I got all the sense knocked out of me when he hit me with a sword,” Neil admitted, which made his uncle glare at a blank-faced Andrew.

“Best courting offer you ever received and you know it.” Neil just laughed at that and nodded.

“What in the name of the Thr-“ Stuart frowned as he seemed to think about what he was about to say. “You really sure about this?” he asked Neil.

“ _Yes_ ,” he told his uncle as he lightly grasped Andrew’s left sleeve. “Come on, I think you’ll like the bedroom on the third floor.” From what the knowe had revealed to him, it had a large soaking tub and a great view of the woods, and plenty of shelves for all of Andrew’s books.

Night’s Haven wasn’t the Dark Road, but it was full of tall looming trees which cast shade everywhere, had a sense of security because of the ancient wards sunk deep into the earth and it was _Neil’s_ (well, his and Andrew’s). It would do as a compromise, as a place to build a future with a certain necromancer who had somehow anchored Neil back into the Fae world and given him a reason to stay there, to stop running.

Andrew looked around him with a flat expression, as always, but Neil could feel his interest, could tell from the way he was examining things as if noting what might be a potential problem or marking down what he wanted to come back to examine later, and felt the shared excitement between the two of them. It wasn’t just him who had something to look forward to, but Andrew as well, and Neil was determined that for once, they would have the best new beginning as possible.

*******

“Uhm, Andrew?”

Andrew looked up from the book he’d been reading to find Nicky hovering not too far from the desk he favored in the small library on the second floor he’d effectively taken over in Night’s Haven; the spirits had warned him that his cousin was seeking him out and given him an idea why. In the last couple of weeks that he and Neil had settled in the knowe, Andrew had called about a dozen or so spirits to the place and set them up as various sorts of alarms, to the point that most of the large realm was covered. He knew when anyone appeared seeking an audience or sanctuary, and he definitely knew where his idiot and his cousin were at all times (could find that out himself, if he really wanted to as well).

“He’s out running in the woods with the mutts,” Andrew told his cousin as he set the book he’d been reading – an ancient tome on herbal spells which he bet Bee would love - aside. “What did Moreau say was his reason for visiting?”

Nicky grimaced a little before chuckling. “That’s a little creepy, you know.” ( _Truth_ ) At Andrew’s flat look he sighed. “Something about just wanting to talk to Neil, about it not being too important. He seemed a little uncomfortable so I set him in the ivy-paneled sitting room.”

/ _Truth_./

Willing to bet that Neil already knew of Moreau’s presence, judging from the flash of curiosity over their bond, Andrew got up to leave the library. “Tell Lisia that we have a guest.” The older Gwyllion was a maestro at making sweets and desserts, something which Neil didn’t appreciate as much as he should but which Andrew did.

“I will.” Nicky took to whistling as he went about the errand; having the responsibility of ensuring that Night’s Haven ran well seemed to be the perfect job for him in that he got to help people and socialize all day long. Add in that he finally had Erik by his side, his lover busy taking care of the knowe’s finances, and he was the happiest that Andrew had ever seen him.

There were sounds of chittering pixies out in the gardens and laughing Fae in the hallways; a Bean Sidhe changeling gave Andrew a cocky grin as she danced around a Puck with oak leaves in his curly hair, which he took as a good sign for his near future. Most importantly, the Fae who’d come to Night’s Haven treated Andrew and Neil with respect and gratitude but never fawning reverence (all it took was seeing Jorea ordering Neil around or the mutts slobbering and shedding all over the two of them to realize that they really weren’t _those_ Three).

All Andrew had ever wanted was a home, was somewhere he felt safe, where he didn’t live in constant fear of being shuffled about or waited for the next hit, the next bout of pain and abuse. He’d finally found it, had stood in shock when Neil had ordered the knowe to consider him just as much its rightful owner as Neil. Even Andrew knew that wasn’t the way things went, that there should only be one owner to a knowe and it was Neil’s by blood-right… but the idiot fox never seemed to follow the rules, to listen to reason and do what was expected of him so why start now?

Andrew had been (still was) willing to fight all of the Fae for his idiot, but Neil had fought back death for him and literally given him half of everything he owned, had given him a home which no one could take away from him. Perhaps in the end Renee hadn’t messed up too badly when she’d stuck them together (not that Andrew would ever admit that to her).

He’d reached the ‘ivy-paneled sitting room’ (called that because of the pale green walls with the ornately carved ivy tendrils all over the dark walnut wood paneling and trim) to find Jean Moreau looking out the windows onto the gardens below. “How can anyone breathe with all that pixie dust in the air?” he mused aloud.

“You get used to it,” Andrew said as he leaned against the wall, which made the Leannan Sidhe whirl around to face him. “Renee could tell you that it’s great for growing medicinal herbs, and the Selkies, Merrow and Kelpies and Shellycoats are happy with them, too. Something about the aquatic life thriving. Go figure, the Fae and their convoluted ecosystems.”

“Eh, are you talking about all the pearls which Jorea and Arrant found?” Neil asked as he stepped out of the shadows right into the library with Ombre and Nuit at his heels; anyone who lived into the knowe quickly got used to their ‘king’ and his pets popping up like that. “Hi, Jean.” He gave the stunned Leannan Sidhe a quick wave by way of greeting.

Moreau was probably taking in Neil with the myriad of pearls and tiny flowers in his hair, face covered in pixie dust and feet bare, dressed in an old cotton t-shirt of Andrew’s which hung on his smaller frame, grey leggings and a coating of shadow wolves’ hair. A very far cry from the Unseelie king indeed, but Neil never was one to bother with airs, especially when he was out running around with his precious mutts. Especially when he usually came back from running around with said mutts to ‘play’ with Andrew, unless Nicky bothered them with something stupid or they had to go slap down some stupid Fae lord who couldn’t grasp the concept of ‘free will’.

“Ah… is it… a bad time?” Moreau asked as he gestured to Neil.

“No, it’s been a quiet day.” Neil smiled at Andrew as he rubbed Ombre’s ears. “We caught that one wild boar who’s been rooting through the lavender patch.” Nuit ‘grinned’ and showed off a mouthful of sharp white teeth which made Moreau edge closer to the windows.

/ _Truth_./

“Allessandro will be pleased to hear that,” Andrew said, naming the Huacas half-breed healer who’d come to the knowe as soon as Neil had opened it once again.

“Yes.” Neil gazed at him for a couple of seconds, his emotions so warm and invigorating, before he resumed looking at Moreau. “So, are you here to see the knowe? I thought you were at Coomlea with Kevin?”

“Ah, yes, Kevin.” Moreau shot Andrew a guarded look before he said something in French which made Neil shake his head.

“No, he stays,” Neil told his ‘friend’. “You can trust him and there’s no secrets between us.” His smile took on a sharp edge as he touched the silver gauntlet slightly extended on over his right hand, probably from the hunt. “Besides, he finds it out in the end because of the bond between us.” There wasn’t any bitterness to that statement, just amusement and certainty and a hint of exasperation, which was understandable.

/ _Truth_./

Moreau didn’t appear as if he believed that, but at the moment Lisia arrived with a tray of snacks; the Gwyllion was dressed as if some fussy old lady out of a historical movie in a high-necked dark purple dress which came down to her ankles, boots with tiny buttons and a starched white apron… and wouldn’t hesitate to hex anyone’s ass who gave her grief. Between her ability in the kitchen to whip up a flourless dark chocolate cake which would probably leave Andrew with an extreme case of diabetes if he was mortal and the fact that she didn’t take any shit off of some ‘green king with a stupid bit of flash’, he thought he might actual like the woman.

“Another scrawny one,” she sniffed. “You Unseelie, too much brooding and not enough eating.” She gave Moreau a sour look. “You stuck with some ridiculous diet, too, like this fool?”

/ _Truth_?/

Yes, Andrew thought the woman was indeed growing on him.

Moreau gaped at her for a moment before he shook his head. “Non… I mean, no.”

“Good, then eat something for once.” She sniffed again as she gave Neil a pointed look and tapped first a pot of tea with roses painted on it and then a matching plate with scones. “Made with that special fruit and water of yours, so it better be all gone when I come back, Hatford.”

/ _Truth_./

“Yes, ma’am,” Neil told her with a slight bow of his head.

“Least one of you has sense,” she muttered as she gathered her skirts in her right hand and held her head high as she walked out of the room.

/ _Truth_./

“I think she likes me,” Andrew remarked once she was gone, busy checking out the tray and snatching up a plate of Lisia’s ‘famous’ chocolate spice cookies. Nuit gave a low coughing sound so Andrew tossed one to the mutt, who didn’t seem bothered by chocolate.

“Of course she does, you eat everything she makes and ask for more,” Neil grumbled while he picked at a scone and seemed to decide it wasn’t too bad after a nibble, even though he split it with a perked-ear Ombre.

/ _Truth_./

“She is supposed to be a- never mind, that’s not why I’m here.” Moreau took a deep breath and poured himself a cup of coffee from the ‘safe’ pot. “So….” He eyed Andrew for a moment before he took another breath. “How do you… is it working, whatever you have between the two of you?” he asked Neil. “You seem content.”

Neil’s smile slipped away and he gave the remaining scones to Ombre, who ignored them as she pressed against his right hip. “Ah, do you mean-“ He waved back and forth between him and Andrew a couple of times. “Us being together?”

Andrew almost scoffed at that phrasing, but he could tell that Moreau was struggling with the topic, and Neil’s emotions had taken a serious, almost dark turn; he was willing to bet that both of them were thinking about what had happened at Evermore, about what Riko had ‘made’ some of the Moriyama knights do to them.

“Yes,” Moreau said after a slight pause while Neil’s anxiety grew. “How can you do it after everything? How can you trust him? How-“

Andrew reached over to rest his hand on the back of Neil’s neck before the idiot grew even more agitated by the questions. “Because I’m not _them_ ,” he snapped at the stupid bastard. “I would never treat him like that, I respect _him_ , I respect his _choices_ and he respects _me and mine_. Just like Kevin respects you or else you wouldn’t be here having this conversation.”

/ _Truth_./

“Yes,” Neil choked out as he gave Andrew a grateful smile, his emotions a tangled mess but his hand steady as he reached back to squeeze Andrew’s, the gauntlet now a solid band on his wrist and the torc whispering ‘ _truth_ ’ in Andrew’s head. “I won’t say that it was easy – that it’s always easy, but once I got to know Andrew, I realized he wasn’t like them and I’m safe with him.” He laughed a little, the sound weak and shaky, but still a laugh. “Kevin may have his faults, but I trust him. I think he’ll be good for you.” He laughed again as he held Jean’s gaze. “I don’t really know Jeremy very well, sorry.”

/ _Truth_./

Moreau blushed at that. “Ah, you know… never mind.” He fidgeted a little with his neglected cup of coffee. “They’re both so patient, and even as they annoy the hell out of me….” He gave Neil a slight smile while he shrugged.

“They’re both stupid,” Andrew advised the pain in the ass in an attempt to get him to leave. “Play your cards right and you’ll have them doing your bidding for years to come.”

/ _Truth_./

“You….” Moreau’s indignant look faded to something thoughtful. “Hnn.” He picked up a regular scone and had a couple of bites before he asked Neil a few general questions about the knowe and how he was doing. Andrew was content to eat the rest of the sweets and remain quiet until the pain in the ass left.

“So, looks like things are getting serious between those three,” Neil remarked as they made their way to their bedroom so a certain idiot could change clothes, now that he wasn’t running through the woods.

Andrew scoffed at that. “It’ll take another year, just wait and see.” Kevin would put being a ‘king’ first rather than face up to his emotions, Knox would hover around the other two rather than risk upsetting Moreau or one-upping Kevin, and Andrew would have something to be thankful for in being well away from the three morons. They were almost as bad as his brother, who _still_ hadn’t figured out a way to tell his precious Katelyn the truth.

/ _Truth_./

As if that thought had been a jinx, he’d been enjoying a leisurely morning in bed with a certain idiot, one where Neil was doing his best to ‘convince’ Andrew to spend some time on the Dark Road with teasing kisses. There was no sense of urgency, no dark emotions, no plans or agendas for the day other than avoid the rest of the Fae as much as possible and get Neil to make that one squeaking sound he sometimes did when Andrew nibbled on his ear _just_ so (and which he fervently denied each and every time).

So he jerked away when he felt Dan use the one tree they’d set up for her to ‘teleport’ into the knowe, the same time that Neil stiffened against him, and sent a spirit off to investigate as they both fumbled away from the bed in search of clothes. As soon as they were dressed, Neil pulled him through the shadows to the main foyer, where Dan, Nicky and Erik were waiting.

A grim-faced Dan gave them a curt nod while Erik was hugging a stunned Nicky close. “Good, that was quick.”

“What is it?” Andrew demanded to know; for Nicky to be affected like that, it had to be someone ‘close’.

“Aaron sent me to get you,” she explained in a rush. “Something happened to his girlfriend.”

At first Andrew wanted to scoff and tell her to fuck off, but he could tell from Neil’s concern that it wasn’t as simple as that. ‘Dear’ Katelyn was part Fae, after all, even if she didn’t know about it (in part because Aaron was a fucking _coward_ ), so that meant chances were good that Fae were involved in whatever had happened to her.

Who would want to harm an unclaimed changeling with ties to one of the new Fae kings?

/ _Truth_./

Rage grew inside of Andrew, made him want to lash out and hurt something, made the spirits whirl around the foyer and Nicky gasp in surprise while Dan took a cautious step back, at least until Neil placed a light hand on his left arm. “Do you know anything?” he asked her as he stood next to Andrew, unafraid of the power Andrew radiated.

“Just that she’s been gone for two days now and the humans can’t find anything. Some think she’s run away, that the pressure from her classes have gotten to be too much,” the dryad explained. “Aaron’s going crazy trying to find a clue.”

/ _Truth_./

Neil and Andrew shared a look for a couple of seconds. “Nicky, stay here and don’t let anyone unaffiliated with the knowe inside,” Andrew told his cousin. Nicky nodded at the orders, and Erik, a much better fighter, nodded as well to show that he’d ensure the place was properly defended. Jorea darted down from her perch on the second floor railing to land on Neil’s right shoulder and of course the two mutts were his ever-present shadows. The idiot held out his left hand to Dan so she could join them as he shadow walked; a few seconds later they were back at the Foxhole Court.

“I’m going to see if Betsy has another potion for me,” Neil said as he let go of Andrew’s hand, referring to the one which let him spend time in the mortal world without having to throw up so much. Andrew nodded to show that he understood before he went off in search of his twin, which didn’t take too long – he followed the sound of shouting.

“-bably the High Court! They’ve been against us from the beginning,” Aaron yelled at Wymack.

“ _What_ High Court?” Wymack yelled back. “Nothing’s left after we took down the Dancing Wind knowe over a month ago! You can’t go charging around like a loose cannon or it’ll ruin everything we’ve been building during all this time, dammit!”

“Well I can’t just stand around here and do nothing while some bastard is-“

Andrew clapped his hands together to get the fools’ attention. “Wonderful strategy.”

Wymack took to cursing beneath his breath while Aaron whipped his head around to stare at him. “Andrew? You… you came?” He sounded incredulous at the moment, which made something bitter twist inside of Andrew’s chest. “You’re here to help?”

“I seem to remember there being some ‘operation save Andrew’s boyfriend’, I’m only here to return the favor,” he said in a flat tone of voice.

/ _Not-truth_ ,/ the damn torc whispered in his head, but Andrew was rather good at ignoring it by then.

“You….” For a moment anger twisted Aaron’s features, and then he let out a slight huff of air. “Whatever, you’re here.” That time something perilously close to gratitude spread across his face. “I’ll take whatever brought you here as long as you help.” Then his eyes narrowed as he looked around. “Where’s the _boyfriend_?”

“Getting something to keep him from puking out his guts once he leaves the Fae realm, pathetic creature that he is,” Andrew sneered.

/ _Truth_?/ Of course it was.

Wymack groaned as he rubbed at his stubble-covered face. “Titania’s tits, I did _not_ miss you at all, you grouchy dwarf. How the hell does Neil put up with you?”

“Why would I ‘put up’ with Andrew?” Neil asked with evident confusion as he stepped out of the shadows. “He’s not a problem,” he told Wymack with a displeased look while Andrew gave the man a salute, the torc whispering ‘ _truth_ ’ all the while.

“I’m not… one disaster at a time,” Wymack complained. “Are you going to help or what?”

“Yes,” Neil sighed as he grimaced and held up a small vial in his right hand. “Let me take this and then we’ll go to where this Katelyn lived so the wolves can find her scent.” Nuit barked in agreement at that.

“Then hurry up, dammit.” Aaron radiated impatience while Neil took the potion, and was about to complain until Andrew gave him a warning look to back off for a moment while he made sure that the glasses were settled properly on Neil’s face and he was wearing the charm around his neck to help protect him from bright lights. Neil smiled at him for the fussing despite the slight queasiness from the potion, and as soon as it passed, forced himself to hold out his hand to Aaron.

“Ah, think of where you want us to go,” Neil said. “Hopefully somewhere private.”

“Her dorm room was sealed off by the police, the last I saw it,” Aaron said. “We’ll go there.”

Andrew saw Neil mouth ‘dorm’ for a moment before his lover used his talent to ‘teleport’ them; it still took him unaware now and then, the fact that Neil had ‘skipped’ most of the twentieth century. He might have heard the word before, but probably didn’t associate it to university living and, after making sure that the room was indeed empty, stared around in confusion at the small space decorated in orange and white – enough to make even Andrew’s eyes ache.

“Pep squad?” he asked Aaron while Neil gazed at a set of pom-poms in bewilderment, his utter lack of understanding overriding the discomfort he felt at being in the mortal realm for the moment.

“For the football team,” Aaron said, his posture defensive as he watched the shadow wolves poke around the disheveled room. “It’s a scholarship, and she does more than just wave things in the air and rhyme. She’s a good gymnast.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew rolled his eyes to show that he didn’t care. “The mutts finding anything?”

“Uhm… I think so.” Neil pointed to a device perched on top of a small basket. “What does that do?”

“Something for people’s hair.” That got Jorea’s attention and made her flit around the iron before she sneered and returned to Neil’s shoulder to stroke _his_ disheveled hair. “What, too simple for you?” Andrew taunted the pixie.

“Stupid mortals and metal,” Jorea sniffed. “They use it for everything, no wonder so little magic left.”

/ _Truth… and not-truth_./

Now that had some interesting implications.

“Stop playing around,” Aaron snapped, so Andrew, Jorea and Neil were quiet while Nuit seemed to find a basket of laundry. After pawing around in that for about a minute, he barked twice and Neil nodded.

“Okay, they should be able to track her now.” He glanced at Andrew. “We’ll probably go back to the Dark Road and then wherever they’re holding her.”

“After we return to-“

“No,” Aaron insisted. “They’ve already had her for two days, that’s too long.” When Andrew gave him a blank look, he shook his head. “You were ready to charge right into Baiting’s End for Neil, don’t tell _me_ to wait, dammit!”

Why was everyone so _stupid_? “We’ve no idea what we’re facing there,” Andrew gritted out while Neil backed away as if to give them some space. “You want to deal with what could be a hostile knowe with just the three of us?” Nuit barked at that while Jorea hissed in displeasure. “And a couple of mutts and a pixie, right, that makes it _so_ much better.”

“A couple of _shadow wolves_ ,” Aaron stressed. “And don’t tell me your boyfriend can’t get more. You’re _kings_ , aren’t you? Everyone’s terrified of messing with you.”

Which was why they’d taken the girlfriend (sort-of) of a king’s _twin_ , right. However, before Andrew could argue that point, Aaron’s expression twisted with desperation. “Please, Andrew. I know she’s in danger and I need to save her. I know you’ve done… just this one last thing, all right? That’s all I’ll ever ask from you again.”

/ _Truth_?/

Neil flinched upon hearing that one word, outrage and upset flowing over the bond since _he_ knew how much Andrew hated it. Aaron should know better, too, should know that Andrew had already done more than enough for him, dammit, but part of the reason that things were so fucked up between them was that Andrew didn’t know when to stop trying to fix things for Aaron when he’d been doing it for so long. “We get her back, you tell her the fucking truth and that’s it,” he told his brother. “You’re on your own.”

He could feel Neil’s surprise at the declaration, surprise and pain of all things, pain he knew was for him, yet Aaron nodded. “It’s a deal. Now can we go?”

/Truth./

“I… suppose.” Neil glanced at Andrew and only held out his hand when Andrew nodded. He gave Neil’s a quick squeeze to make his lover stop worrying so much about him, that and a muttered ‘idiot’, and hated how his chest grew tight at the timorous smile Neil gave him in return.

At one point Andrew would have done anything for Aaron – had braved iron for his twin, put up with Tilda’s potions and Luther’s suspicions, had killed his own mother and worked at Eden’s in hopes of finding a safe knowe eventually. Yet in the end, he’d found his home with an improbable runner of an idiot who didn’t even know better than to not eat magical fruit, who matched him on stubbornness and issues and faithfulness in the end.

The scent of Neil’s magic was heavy around them as they stepped onto the Dark Road, indicating that he must have used it to ‘shorten’ things. Andrew wrapped an arm around his lover’s waist as Nuit let out a plaintive howl, his brows furrowed while Neil shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that far away, but it’s in the mortal world, where they’re holding her.”

/ _Truth_./

“I thought you couldn’t understand what the mutts were saying.”

Neil smiled at that. “I can’t, but I can feel the tug of where they’re leading us. Also, I’m pretty sure they’re letting the others know to join us when they can.”

/ _Truth_./

“So let’s go already,” Aaron snapped, which made Jorea mutter some insults at him in Pixish and Andrew to seriously consider bodily harm if not fratricide for a moment.

Neil took a deep breath before he pulled them through the shadows once more; Andrew could feel the nausea hit him with an almost physical force once they stepped into the mortal world despite Bee’s potion. Whoever had taken Katelyn was a clever bastard and chose an old automobile junkyard to hide in, leaving Neil surrounded by metal and iron, by plastic and rubber and oil, by old chemicals and minerals leeched deep into the ground and heavy in the air to the point that even Andrew was left feeling uneasy.

“Fascinating. No wonder he’s Maeb’s heir,” a familiar, deep voice called out.

Andrew spun toward that voice with his arms around a weakened Neil to find Ichirou Moriyama standing about fifty feet away, his hands held up in a peaceful manner with several other Fae standing around him in a protective curve – and a crying Katelyn off to the side. “Before you attack, I mean no one any harm,” he called out. “Strike first and it’s an act of war.”

/ _Truth_./

The wolves hovered on either side of Neil, unwilling to leave him while he could barely breathe, and a slight nod from Andrew made them sit down though they continued to snarl and bare their teeth at Ichirou and his entourage. Aaron cried out his stupid twit’s name and made to run forward, but Andrew had the earth heave beneath his brother’s feet while he summoned the nearest spirits for help.

“Don’t,” he told Aaron when his brother glared at him, feet trapped by dirt and weeds. “He’s telling the truth.”

“But he took her an-“

“ _Ask him_ ,” Neil spat out before letting loose a vicious spate of old Fae which left even Jorea and Ichirou looking impressed – a stream of probably inventive curses he had to cut short so he could lean over and throw up the tea he’d had for breakfast before moaning in misery, Jorea fluttering around him all the while.

“What the hell did you do?” Andrew asked while he wiped at his lover’s sweaty face with the cuff of his sleeve, exasperated over everything and ready for an excuse to start killing people – it was supposed to be a quiet, enjoyable day with Neil in their bed and maybe the Dark Road if Neil was ‘persuasive’ enough, not Andrew dealing with assholes and his brother’s fuck-ups and an idiot’s inability to handle a bit of pollution and iron. “Talk before I start a war for the hell of it.”

/ _Truth_./

Ichirou arched an eyebrow at that and clicked his tongue. “I don’t understand all of this animosity. All I did was offer my protection to a young changeling fumbling around looking for answers.” He gave a slight smile to Katelyn who was shaking her head – probably ordered or hexed silent, from the looks of it. “She was unclaimed so it was within my rights.”

/ _Truth_./

“You fucking bastard,” Aaron snarled, so Andrew had one of the newly summoned spirits muffle the moron before this dragged on even longer.

“Let me guess, she didn’t know any better to question what all joining your court entailed,” Neil asked as he slumped against Andrew, exhausted and sick and a little bit guilty, probably over that ‘looking for answers’ part since he and Andrew hadn’t been shy about revealing some of their powers in front of her.

The bastard’s smile grew sharper. “It’s not my responsibility to explain everything to her.”

/ _Truth_./

No, it wasn’t, and once again Andrew had a prime example of what he hated about the Fae – one might never _lie_ , but it was so easy to omit the truth, to dance around the things that would cut one into pieces.

Perhaps he hated it because he was so good at it himself, but he could honestly say that he usually used the whole ‘lie by omission’ thing on himself and not others.

/ _Truth_./

“So what do you want?” he asked as he had a spirit haul a glaring Aaron back toward him and Neil while a silent Katelyn continued to cry. “Somehow I don’t picture you going around tricking changelings for the hell of it, especially ones with weak enough magical talent that they barely know they’ve any Fae blood.” Was this about revenge for his uncle and brother?

“Ah, but she’s a changeling with such important ties, isn’t she?” Ichirou asked, a smug smile on his face – a face too much like Riko’s. Did he not realize that Andrew had been the one to kill his prick of a brother?

/ _Truth_./

“So you want to use her against us?” Andrew surmised while Neil shook his head.

“Please,” Aaron pleaded as he stared at Katelyn. “I’ll swear to you in her stead if you’ll let he-“ Andrew silenced the fool again and sighed while Ichirou scoffed at the offer.

“You have nothing I want,” he told Aaron. “No, the young woman’s freedom is going to cost much, much more.” He gave a pointed look to Neil. “I told you that one day I would have something you wanted, didn’t I?”

Andrew gave the Tengu a sliver of a smile. “It looks like you get that war after all.” Aaron gazed at him in betrayal as he summoned his power, but Neil stopped him by stepping in-between him and Ichirou.

“No, that won’t happen.” He did something, a flare of magic, while he stared at Andrew. “I’ll listen to his terms.”

“Get out of my way,” Andrew told his lover as his temper burned at the thought of his lover being in the bastard’s debt.

“No,” Neil repeated, full of regret and guilt and trust as he reached out to brush the tips of his fingers against the center of Andrew’s chest with the lightest of touches. “It truly will start a war if you attack him.”

“I don’t care,” Andrew swore, the words the pure truth.

“I do.” Neil looked right at him while he spoke. “It won’t end here even if we kill them all and save the girl. Everything we’ve tried to build will be ruined if we fight today, if we show that we break such simple laws and take what we want. And that’s if Katelyn isn’t killed right away, meaning such a war would be for nothing.”

“He speaks the truth,” Jorea agreed, which was echoed by the damn torc.

For a moment Andrew wanted to shove Neil aside and use his power to have the spirits break Ichirou’s neck. Yet Neil hadn’t lied and he was caught between two promises, two oaths. “Dammit, if it’s too high a price, I’m still killing him.”

Neil gave him a sad smile and leaned in for a quick brush of lips against his own before he stepped aside, his gait unsteady. The spell (Andrew assumed it was one to prevent anyone else overhearing them) ‘broke’, and Ichirou arched a thin black brow as if in impatience. “Well?”

“What’s the price of the girl’s freedom?” Andrew asked through gritted teeth.

The smile on Ichirou’s face just then made him want to start the damn war no matter what the consequences. “That young Nathaniel resumes the job he was born for, that he becomes my Folús Sidhe.”

“I’m not your a _nything_ ,” Neil declared while Andrew slipped free a knife and Jorea hissed out insults.

“I’m not requiring a full oath since she’s just a changeling, but you will put your talents to use for me,” Ichirou said with a bit of pique as he tapped his right foot in impatience.

“I’m not fighting for the Fae only for you to have me turn around and kill them,” Neil told the bastard while a roiling anger filled him.

“I don’t see how-“ Ichirou paled as the earth rumbled beneath his feet and turned his attention onto Andrew as if annoyed at the interruption.

“If you think I’m going to allow this to happen, you’re mistaken. If Fae are going to die, they might as well do it in a war,” he swore as spirits raged around the small clearing, as metal rattled and debris swirled about in mini-tornados. Ichirou and his people appeared rattled while Katelyn looked close to passing out.

/ _Truth_./

Ichirou was quiet for several seconds before he sighed in a dramatic fashion. “Very well, you will put your talents to use for me only in regards to mortals, Nathaniel. Is that a suitable compromise?”

Neil looked at Andrew, his anger lessened by the offer, and Andrew relaxed his hold on his magic; it wasn’t ideal, but it would get them out of there with Katelyn alive (unfortunately) and without a war. “Agreed – I will serve you _only_ in regards to using my talent as a Folús Sidhe on those of pure mortal blood in exchange to you and yours releasing your claim on the changeling Katelyn,” Neil swore.

Irritation flashed across Ichirou’s face over Neil’s wording, probably because he’d hoped to slip a changeling or two in there, but he nodded after a moment. “Agreed.” He gazed at a quietly sobbing Katelyn. “You, Katelyn Morris are no longer bound to me and mine in any manner.” As the young woman’s sobs filled the air of the junkyard and she stumbled toward Aaron, who rushed to meet her, Ichirou nodded at Neil. “I will speak to you soon, Nathaniel.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew made a rude gesture at the bastard while he hauled Neil toward where his fool of a brother was hugging a still sobbing Katelyn, and as soon as the four of them (plus a flying pest and two mutts) were in contact, Neil pulled them through the shadows straight to the Foxhole Court, which cost him a good bit of energy. Despite that fact, Andrew basically shoved his brother and the twit at an anxious Wymack, Dan and Abby.

“Andr-“

“ _No._ ” Andrew cut off his brother with a virulent scowl. “You have her back, get Wymack to take her in and _deal_ with this.” He didn’t want to hear anything else from Aaron, not right then, maybe not for a year or two, to be honest. Not when Aaron had gotten what he’d wanted with others paying the price. Then he grasped Neil’s hand and let his idiot take them back _home_.

Night’s Haven had its own hot springs; they might not be as good as the ones back at the Foxhole Court since Renee didn’t oversee them, but they still made Neil feel better after soaking in them for a couple of hours. He was in one of them with a punch of pixies splashing around and dropping petals on his head when Bee came to pay a visit the next day, Nicky leading her to Andrew’s library.

She smiled while she glanced around the almost circular-shaped room filled with gleaming cedar wood and books everywhere, the windows along two walls decorated with multicolor stained glass in pale shades. “It’s lovely, Andrew. It’ll take even you a little while to get through all of these books.”

“There’s a couple of other libraries for when I do,” he told her; this was just the one he preferred to spend the most time in. “You finally get tired of hearing Wymack yell about nothing?”

“No.” Her smile widened as she held up a small basket and set it down on the one cherry table he used as a reading desk. “Abby and I thought Neil might appreciate this, after hearing about yesterday. The vial with the blue cap should help him if he’s still feeling a little unwell, and the ones with the green caps he can keep on him in case he finds himself in a similar situation again.”

/ _Truth_./

Which was likely, considering the damn oath he’d been forced to swear. As if guessing his thoughts, Bee sat down and gave Andrew an even look. “How long are you going to hold it against Aaron?”

“What, that my fool of a brother had to go looking in the mortal world for a girlfriend and latch on to a changeling who didn’t even know she was part Fae?” Andrew asked as he closed the book he’d been reading and set it aside before something happened to it. “That he kept that knowledge from her and continued to string her along, even after I first told him to break it off and then listened to your advice and tried to get him to man up for once? Only for a damn Moriyama to take advantage of everything and use it to tie Neil to him, to make Neil his pet assassin?” Andrew’s fists hit the table hard enough to make it jump off the floor a little. “Why oh why would I be upset and hold it against him, hmm?”

/ _Truth?_ /

He told the damn torc to shut the hell up.

Bee sighed and shook her head, her expression one of remorse. “We all had a part to play in what happened.” She held up her hands to keep Andrew quiet. “Yes, Aaron should have done something with Katelyn sooner, either should have walked away if he wasn’t willing to risk her reaction to the truth or braved the fallout. But you confronting her made her start looking into things which left her open to Ichirou, and I should have reached out to Aaron after encouraging you to make the overture in regards to the young woman, to relent a little when it came to his personal life.” She huffed as she rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses for a couple of seconds. “I should have realized that he wouldn’t act upon things immediately, but I didn’t. The two innocents here are Katelyn and Neil, and they’re the ones paying the most.”

/ _Truth_./

“The good old Fae way,” Andrew drawled as he felt the rush of concern from his lover over his turbulent emotions.

“Yes.” Bee seemed saddened to agree with him on that. “Katelyn’s… well, she’s adjusting, but I think it’s because she doesn’t have a choice. She’s also asking some questions which are putting Aaron on the spot.”

“Good, he deserves it.” He gritted his teeth when the torc hesitated before agreeing with him.

“Andrew….” Bee gave him a concerned look. “He wanted to come here today but Abby won’t let Katelyn to leave the Foxhole Court just yet. But he’ll-“

“He won’t be welcome here,” Andrew informed her, and shook his head when she tried to argue – either with him or for his brother. “No, not just yet. Let him play with his mostly mortal girlfriend he wanted so much.”

Bee gazed at him for several seconds before she sighed. “Let you find out how much Neil has to pay because of him, right?” He didn’t answer that, but she knew him well enough that he didn’t need to in the end. “When you’re ready to talk, let me know. Some space right now probably would be for the best, but you’re brothers, you’re twins. It needs to be worked out in the end.”

/ _Truth_./

He didn’t say anything to that… but again, she knew him. So they talked about some of the books Andrew had found and the changes at the Foxhole Court, and then he walked with her to the main foyer where Nuit was waiting for him. He wished her ‘goodbye’ as she left, and allowed the shadow wolf to take him to his idiot.

Neil was soaking in one of the hot springs in the forest, his clothes stacked in a pile beside the pool and several of the pack sprawled around it. “What did Betsy want?”

“She brought some potions for you since you’re a miserable weakling whenever you leave the Fae realms,” Andrew stated as he stripped off his clothes.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Neil murmured, his expression one of appreciation and emotions a mix of amusement, concern and interest. It was clear that he knew she’d been by for more than that, but he was willing to allow Andrew some privacy.

Neil waited until Andrew nodded once he was in the water to swim over to him, his arms sliding around Andrew’s neck and delight/anticipation/desire flowing over their bond. “She worries about you. It’s nice to have someone who cares so much,” he said, alluding to Bee’s visit.

“As a certain idiot fox would say, I’m fine.”

That earned him an amused chuckle. “Whatever _you_ say.” Neil leaned in to nuzzle at his jaw, his delight growing at the faint rasp of stubble he found there. “One of the pixies came along with an invite from Renee and Allison. Supposedly they’re done renovating Baiting’s End and would like us to stop by.”

Andrew stroked his left hand along Neil’s back, up and down the many healed scars covering taut muscles, the raven in flight left by Riko and all the others from Neil’s own father, the broken runes carved into him by his own mother, something so painful even if they’d been meant as protection – Andrew swore to himself that there wouldn’t be any more as long as he was there to protect his lover. “Do you want to go?” he asked, mindful of how the place held nothing but bad memories for Neil.

Neil chewed on his full bottom lip as he thought about that, his arms loose around Andrew’s shoulders as he seemed to hold on for support. “Yes,” he answered after some consideration. “I’d like to see it as something new.”

/ _Truth_./

“Okay, we’ll figure out a day,” Andrew promised, and felt something warm and peaceful inside of him as Neil smiled and leaned forward for a kiss. Andrew tightened his arms around his lover and licked into his mouth, held Neil close as the hot water swirled around them, until Neil shivered and pulled away with a slight moan.

“Abram.”

That… wasn’t what Andrew had expected to hear. “All right,” he said with a frown. “Who is he?”

Neil’s face grew flushed as he gazed at Andrew. “That’s… that’s me,” Neil admitted. “ _Abram_. My true name.”

/ _Truth_./

Andrew stared back for several seconds before the full weight of that one word sunk in; Neil was a pureblood, was the son of a Firstborn, the grandchild of Firstborns and a direct descendent of Maeb and Oberon. He was both Scáth Sidhe and Folús Sidhe, was the Unseelie king… and the closest rein on his power was the damn promise to Ichirou Moriyama to take human lives upon his command.

Yet he’d just given Andrew his true name, which was a geas of sort, a means for Andrew to…. “Why?” Andrew demanded to know, his voice rough as his arms wrapped even more around Neil’s waist.

“Because it’s you,” Neil told him without any hesitation or doubt, that one damn emotion flowing so warm and heavy over their bond that Andrew could barely breathe. “I know it’s all right since it’s _you_.”

/ _Truth_./

Neil had already given him control of the knowe, was already stuck with him because of the bond and the damn gauntlet and king thing and…. “I can’t give you mine,” Andrew said as he bowed his head until their foreheads touched. Neil knew his full name but being a ‘changeling’ and raised in the mortal world… ‘Andrew Joseph Minyard’ didn’t have the full power behind it when it had never been a closely guarded secret, when it had never been _given_ any true power.

“That’s fine.” Neil smiled at him again. “You’ve given me so much more.” When Andrew shook his head, Neil placed his right palm against Andrew’s chest. “You gave me a reason to trust again, you protect me, and you… you ground me.” He laughed as his fingers curled in the pale chest hair. “You gave me a reason to stop running.”

/ _Truth_./

“Yet you’re out here every damn day with these mutts,” Andrew drawled. “Rabbiting around the woods.”

“Not a rabbit,” Neil muttered.

“Hmm.” Andrew tilted his head to nibble at his idiot’s left ear, which provoked those shivers he much enjoyed. “Enough talking.”

“Oh-okay.” Neil’s arms wrapped even more around his shoulders as he moaned in pleasure as Andrew’s lips moved along his ear.

Maybe one day Andrew would be able to admit out loud what all Neil had given him, but until then he’d keep a certain idiot safe and close, put up with flying pests and too-smart mutts, and would do so for a long time to come.

/ ** _Truth_**./

*******

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******  
> And there we have it! Dare I say that this one was a bit sappy? Or that it definitely had some sappy moments?
> 
> To wrap things up a little better:  
> Yes, Andrew and Aaron work on things. It might seem a little hopeless at the end there, but like Bee and Andrew said/thought, they need some space. The boys have been together since the 50s? and this fic ends around the time that the TFC books take place, so yes, several decades of their promise and Andrew looking out for Aaron and everything that entails. Bee is a wealth of wisdom and advice, but she's not quite the wonderful psychiatrist here and no weekly sessions and what both Andrew and Aaron need the most for a little while is living their own lives (especially Aaron being out from Andrew's shadow). Once they get that, they'll work on a real relationship with each other.
> 
> Katelyn will forgive Aaron. She's not TERRIBLY happy at the moment (the threats from Andrew, being snatched by Fae, mostly Aaron not telling her the truth), but she genuinely loves him and understands he loves her. But oh, he'll be doing a lot of groveling, oh yes he will.
> 
> Dan (with Matt) will take over Evermore. Kevin is behind that, Kevin and Wymack, and a bit Neil and Andrew - the knowe is available and as the person who killed Tetsuji, Kevin technically has a claim to it since Riko would have been the one to inherit it, not Ichirou (that whole weird side family thing). Ichirou could push for it, but he decides it's in the best interest to just let it go (make 'nice' with the new Three kings since at least one of them want him dead), and so Kevin hands it over to Dan since Wymack isn't going to pass on TFC any time soon (he better not, if his 'kids' have anything to say about it). He's so proud of his 'kids', going out in the 'world' and setting up their own knowes, using what he taught them to help out other Fae - it's all he ever wanted, really.
> 
> Let's just say that it's suddenly a lot safe for women and children in certain parts of the world, that cultural anthropologists are all atwitter about stories of large dark hounds and horses with fiery eyes and mane and tails ridden by an assortment of otherworldly creatures and a beautiful blonde woman in armor leading the charge with a gleaming sword to track down those who would abuse or traffic the innocent....  
> Oh yes, the Wild Hunt is back.
> 
> Kevin will let Wymack know that he's his father, eventually. Once he's settled in Coomlea with Jean and Jeremy. You know THAT is going to take some time.
> 
> Uhm, think those are the main points? Feel free to ask if you think I left out anything important.
> 
> New chapter of Raven's Partner next week!
> 
> As always, thanks so much for all the comments and kudos! They're ever so much appreciated (truly, they make me so happy to see them and spur me on to write these ridiculously long fics).

**Author's Note:**

> *******  
> I feel like a lot of this chapter was setting things up, to be honest. It's to get things to a certain point (things really start moving next chapter!), and had to be gotten through. Meh.
> 
> Also, keep in mind that because I switched back and forth between Neil and Andrew to break things up/show some contrast, that it's not exactly linear, the timeline. There were a lot of big time jumps for Neil (if you didn't catch that), but the two boys are NOT in sync. Oh no. Not yet, at least. If it's not clear yet, time is really screwed up in the Dark Road. Yes, being there is affecting Neil. He should have listened to his mother better. We know how badly he does at that.
> 
> And lol, I'm not trying to be too cute w/ the shadow wolves, but more will come out about them later. And yes, they do help keep Neil sane (all that time by himself? Not good). If you're wondering what they look like, I basically drew inspiration from maned wolves (which are a lot like huge, spindly foxes).
> 
> Also, the title. I never seem to post where I'm drawing the title from, do I? Basically from two songs - Broods' and Florence and the Machines' Heartlines songs (both of those songs have lyrics which I feel are appropriate for this story).
> 
> Hmm, so, if I was to write a short (HA!) for me ficlet, any interested topics? Headcanons? I need inspiration for something, hopefully something that won't turn into 10K+


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